Disappear
by Samuri7269
Summary: When a seemingly everyday Fringe case suddenly ends up involving Olivia, and she doesn't know who to trust, can she find the suspect without becoming a victim herself?  Can Peter save her before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: This is my first fanfic ever, not just for Fringe, but for anything, so I was extremely reluctant to upload this, let alone write it. I have serenie, my amazing cousin, to thank for that. You should check out her fics, they're really good. :) Anyway, I'd like to point out that since I'm _very _new at this, I'd really appreciate some feedback on how I'm doing so far. This is going to be a multi-chapter fic and I shouldn't take too long on updates. In this one, Peter and Olivia are still at that will-they, won't-they stage, sorry. :D Enjoy and please please review! PS: I'd also like another idea for a title if you have one, I'm not very good at titles. :)**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Fringe. But you already know that.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Out Of The Blue<strong>

Sitting in front of a college professor, listening to him drone on about the basic indicators of a chemical reaction was not an ideal way to spend a beautiful spring day in the middle of May.

At least, that's what Brianna Orlbreck thought. Looking around her, she could see that most of her classmates were fully engrossed in what the professor had to say. She couldn't believe it, what kind of person would enjoy hearing about this sort of stuff? Apparently, a lot more people than she had previously thought. Sighing, she turned back to her notebook and pretended to be jotting down notes, doodling instead.

"Brianna, would you like to tell me at least three of the five basic indicators?" The professor said, staring intently at her, as if to say he knew that she wasn't paying attention.

Caught completely off guard, she fumbled around through her notebook hoping to find the answer. She didn't. Growing impatient, the professor asked again, "Brianna?"

Turning red she stuttered, "Uh... well-"

Just as she was about to admit to not paying attention, the bell rung, dismissing class. "Saved by the bell," she muttered under her breath as she gathered her things, "how cliché." Quickly, she continued outside towards her next class.

"Hey, Bri! Wait up!" Turning around, she saw her friend, Anna, trying her best to catch up to her in four inch stilettos. Shifting her weight to one leg, she laughed as she watched Anna stumble and almost lose her balance on the grass.

"Maybe if you lost the heels you wouldn't almost break an ankle." Brianna said as Anna came by her side.

"Well unlike you, I care about how I look." Anna shot back.

Laughing, Brianna just shook her head, "Anyway, what's up?"

"Not much, how's it going with you and Kyle?"

Things were going great with Kyle, her boyfriend, but just as she was about to answer, two arms tightly wrapped around her shoulders. Her heart gave a little jump, not expecting someone to come from behind her. About to turn around, she noticed that all around her it was beginning to turn brighter. Soon the brightness was painfully white and seemed to be closing in on her. No longer being able to see, and with her head throbbing, she gasped and tightly shut her eyes, hoping it would go away.

The throbbing intensified, to the point where she almost couldn't think. Her knees going weak, she collapsed to the ground, her eyes opening again when she felt that she had collapsed in water. Gasping from the cold, she sucked in a mouthful of water, and started coughing violently, sitting up in a small stream that was about one foot deep. Regaining her composure, Brianna looked at her surroundings.

From the looks of it, she was in a forest, pine trees standing tall in every direction she looked. Shivering in the cold water, she stood and stepped out of the stream only to collapse again on the dry ground from exhaustion. On her hands and knees Brianna coughed again, and turned so she was on her side, curling into a tight ball. Thinking about what had just happened, she started sobbing and shaking uncontrollably, not knowing where she was.

After what seemed like forever, she calmed down and stood up again. Still a little dizzy she leaned against a nearby tree for support. Breathing heavily, she thought. She had no idea where she was, or what had happened. She recalled feeling someone approach her from behind, and it scaring her. She knew that only a few seconds later she had seen white in all directions, so bright it had hurt her eyes. And then she had collapsed in a completely different place then where she had been, as though she had teleported. Brianna groaned and held her head in her hands, just thinking about what had happened made her head hurt.

Looking up again, she decided she needed to find help, but that made her think, what if there was no one to help her? What if she was in the middle of nowhere, not near anybody? For all she knew, she was in a different dimension! It sounded crazy, but what she had just experienced was the definition of crazy. What if she couldn't find help in time? What if... " Stop it!" she said to herself, starting to break down again, "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it!" She couldn't start making up what ifs, there were way too many possibilities, and that was only scaring her more. She needed to start thinking logically again.

Whimpering, she leaned back against the tree again and slid to the ground, resting her head on her knees. Whatever it was she needed to do, it could wait. Right now she needed sleep, and she closed her eyes, willing for it to come.

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><p>"Aunt Liv! You can't do that! It's cheating!" Ella laughed as Olivia quickly turned off the Operation game just as she was going in for the heart.<p>

"Says who?" she replied, smiling mischievously as she successfully got the heart out, placing it to the side.

"Me!" Ella said, laughing as she picked up the tweezers and touched them to the side of the hole, the game not making a sound like it should have. "See! It doesn't work if you turn it off, there isn't a point if it doesn't make a sound!"

Sighing, Olivia leaned back into the couch, "Fine. But if I can't do that, then you're going to have to deal with the consequences!" Grinning, she leaned down and grabbed Ella before she could get away and started tickling her sides, making her laugh and scream.

As she continued to tickle her, Olivia heard her phone going off in her jacket pocket. Letting Ella go, she reached for her phone and looked at the caller I.D. and saw that it was Broyles. That couldn't be a good sign. Bringing her finger to her lips, she signaled Ella to quiet down. Seeing that her Aunt was busy, Ella stifled her laughter and ran off down the hall.

"Dunham." She said as she answered the call.

"Agent Dunham, we have another case. Get the Bishops and meet me at Harvard Yard as soon as possible." Broyles said.

Shocked, Olivia quickly asked, "Harvard Yard? Sir, what happened?" She couldn't believe that a Fringe case could have happened so near Walters lab.

"I'll tell you the specifics when you arrive, but to ease your mind, no, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Walter. Yet." Broyles replied.

"Okay, I'll be there soon, along with Peter and Walter." Hanging up, she stood to go get her coat. "Ella!" she called, "I have to go to my job baby girl, I need to drop you off at Lillian's house so she can babysit you, okay?"

"Yes Aunt Liv," Ella replied as she came back into the room with her things, "But when will mom come and pick me up?"

"I'll call her in a second and have her pick you up from there whenever she is ready, but first I need to call Peter." Olivia said as she took her phone again and dialed Peters number. It rang five times before he finally picked up, coughing and breathing heavily.

"Hey, is everything alright?" He said in a raspy voice as he coughed again. Olivia could hear the smoke alarm beeping in the background, along with the sound of clanging pots and pans and Walter humming a familiar tune.

"Uh, how about over there? Are you okay?" She asked, not sure if she really wanted to know. Thinking of all the things Walter had already done, she wouldn't be surprised if he had lit the house on fire.

"Well, Walter and I are fine," he replied, coughing once more, "But the mystery food he was cooking and the stove he was cooking it on? Not so much."

Olivia couldn't help but laugh, "Well, I hope you'll be done cleaning soon because we have a case and Broyles wants us to meet him at Harvard Yard."

"Harvard Yard?" Peter asked in the same tone she had previously used, "That doesn't sound good."

"No it doesn't, which is why we have to be there soon, how long until you're ready?"

Olivia could hear Peter sigh, "Well, there's another thing, our car stopped working. Walter claims he had nothing to do with it but I am convinced he did it. So, do you think you'd be able to stop by and pick us up? I'll have it looked at later."

Smiling to herself, she quickly answered, "Yeah, sure, I'll be there in fifteen minutes, so you two had better be ready by then." Olivia had to admit, she definitely didn't mind having to go and pick them up, just like old times.

"Okay, thanks Olivia, see you soon." Peter said, hanging up afterwards.

Putting her phone away, Olivia finished putting on her coat and ushered Ella into the car. "Aunt Liv?" she asked, as Olivia was buckling her seatbelt, "when will I be able to come over again?"

Looking over her shoulder, she smiled warmly, "Soon, baby girl, when I'm done with work and I have some free time, I'll call your mom and ask her to let you come over. Who knows? Maybe I can take you to the lab to see Uncle Walter and Uncle Peter, would you like that?"

"Yeah! That would be fun!" Ella said, letting a smile light up her face.

"That's good." Olivia replied, as she pulled into the babysitters driveway, "Okay Ella, were here, now behave and mom will pick you up as soon as she can." Leading Ella to the door, she looked up at the sky, noticing dark clouds starting to cover the sky. Great, she thought, another spring day ruined. Little did she know, it was just the beginning.

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><p><strong>AN: So, what did you think? Like I said, this is my first time writing something so I'd like to know what you think! Review please! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: To the reviewer, Amy, who pointed out that Peter and Olivia weren't really "angsty", your right, thank you. I meant to put will-they, won't-they, (kind of like seasons 1 and 2) not angsty, so sorry for any misunderstandings, I don't know what got into me. And in the beginning it won't seem very will-they, won't-theyish either, that starts in a few chapters. I also suck at writing at anything romantic, so I'm sorry if it disappoints, but know that I'm trying my hardest. Again, sorry for any misunderstandings, I tried fixing it in the last chapter but I don't think it worked :/ stupid computer. Anyway here is the next chapter, enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: The Chase Begins<strong>

As she pulled into Peters driveway, Olivia could hear a deep rumbling coming from the clouds. Groaning to herself, she stepped out of the car as the weather continued to worsen. She silently prayed that it wouldn't rain, but knew it was pointless, the clouds were a dark grey, a sure sign that it would eventually pour.

Sure enough, with a flash of lightning and another deep rumble, the clouds gave way. At first it was a steady rain, but within seconds it turned to a torrential downpour. Hurrying to the small overhang that covered the door, she rang the doorbell, wanting to get to the scene as soon as possible, so that none of the evidence would wash away.

Almost immediately, Peter opened the door and allowed Olivia inside with a smile. "Walters just grabbing a few things he might need for the case."

She nodded, "Well we need to go soon, its pouring and we don't want any evidence to wash away."

"Yeah, but it's probably too late by now. I'm sure we'll be fine though, Walter will find something, especially since the lab is so nearby." Peter replied distractedly, looking into the room Walter was in, "Walter! Hurry up! I'm sure that anything else you need we will be able to find in the lab, but we need to go!"

Nodding again, Olivia knew what Peter was thinking. The event had happened extremely close to the lab. He was most likely worried that Walter had something to do with it. Sighing, she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he gave her a worried stare, "Look Peter, I know what you're thinking but Broyles said it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Walter, it'll be fine."

Taking a deep breath, Peter was about to respond, but at that moment, Walter walked in, oblivious to his sons expression and said excitedly, "Oh Peter! Since it is pouring, do you think perhaps I should get my rain poncho? It won't take me a minute!" Starting to turn back around, he continued, "I'll be right back!"

Slipping from Olivia's touch, Peter grabbed his father's arm, "No Walter, that won't be necessary, we have an umbrella and we need to leave now." Looking back at Olivia, he said, "Let's go."

Arriving at the scene, the trio approached Broyles, awaiting a quick rundown of what had happened. Seeing that they had arrived, he finished his conversation with a police officer and met them, leading them towards the exact location. He spoke as he walked, "Brianna Orlbreck, age 22, brown hair, blue eyes, was walking with her friend to her next class. Her friend claims that Brianna's boyfriend, Kyle Freeman had approached her from behind to scare her. The next thing she knew, there was a bright flash and Brianna was gone, as though she had disappeared in thin air." he stopped at an area in the grass that was marked off by red spray paint, "This is the general area that the disappearance happened. Walter, Peter, I'd like you to see if you can find anything of importance. Olivia, I'd like you to brief Kyle Freeman and Anna Browen, they are over there." he said, pointing towards an ambulance with a young man and woman nearby. Nodding, Olivia headed towards the medical vehicle, leaving Walter and Peter behind.

As she neared the vehicle, Olivia noticed that the young man, Kyle, had his head in his hands and seemed to be distressed. She could also see the young woman beside him, trying her best to console him.

Sighing, she approached the woman, Anna, and held out her hand, "I'm Agent Dunham, I'll be working on this case and I'll try to find your friend as soon as I can." looking up, Anna shook Olivia's hand, "Is there anything that you can tell me that could be of any importance? Anything at all?"

Sniffing, Anna thought for a second, "Well I'm pretty sure I told everything to the police already... I'm sorry..."

"That's okay, but if you happen to remember something, be sure to give us a call." she turned to the young man, "I'm sorry for what happened, but is there anything you could tell me as well?"

The man sat there for a while, not moving, to the point that Olivia thought he hadn't heard her. She was about to repeat herself when he shook his head, "I should've known..."

"You should've known what?" Olivia asked, confused.

"I should've known that the drug study she was in was a bad idea... I can't believe it..." his voice was beginning to waver.

Olivia was shocked, this could be a major lead, "So Brianna was in a drug study? Are you sure? It didn't say so in the report."

Shaking his head again, Kyle looked like he was going to break down, "It was secret, more so than others... I wasn't supposed to know but she told me anyway, she trusted me..." Anna put a comforting arm on his shoulder, giving him a reassuring look.

Despite his state of mind, Olivia pressed on, "Is there anything else that you could tell me about that drug study? Was anyone else in it?"

"No, I don't think anyone else was in it, she was specially asked by someone, I don't remember who though. That's all I know, sorry."

She nodded to herself, "Okay, thank you, you may have actually helped more than you can imagine, I'll have someone contact you to keep you updated." With that, she left the two to themselves, knowing they wanted some space and time alone. Heading back towards Walter and Peter, she noticed that Walter was waving his Geiger counter around, and that he looked rather excited.

"Did you find anything?" she asked, standing next to Peter. Walter had finished with the Geiger counter and was now scribbling some things down on a notepad, totally focused on what was in front of him.

"Well, apparently there's some radiation, and it spans out about five feet in all directions, with the strongest reading being right... here." he said, as he stood on an X they had marked.

"So that's most likely the exact point that she vanished?"

"Yeah, it seems that way," looking at Walter who was starting to pack his things, he added, "Walter wants to go back to the lab, he has a few theories, but of course, doesn't care to share. You think you could drop us off? We could walk but in this rain it wouldn't be the best."

"Sure, I think I'll hang around there for a bit too, I have a lead to follow up on that involves some reading." walking towards her SUV, she looked over her shoulder to see if Peter and Walter were following.

"Walter, let's go! Olivia's going to take us to the lab." Peter called in Walters direction. Picking up his bag, Walter followed behind Peter, his brow furrowed, deep in thought. Hurrying to catch up to Olivia, Peter was curious, "What's the lead? Anything good?"

"Yeah," she replied grimly, "Apparently Brianna Orlbreck was in a drug study. Her boyfriend told me. It wasn't on her records, and even he wasn't supposed to know. The best part? She was the only one asked to do it. By who? I have no idea."

"That can't be good." Peter replied, approaching the SUV.

"No, it can't," Olivia said, opening the door to the driver's side and getting in, "which is why we need to get to work."

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><p>"What do you mean she might have been accidentally dosed!" Leon Faber shouted, slamming his fist down onto the cold metal table, making the two men across from him tremble with fear. Staring each of them down, he gauged their reactions, not expecting an answer to his question. He then turned back to the TV, the only other item in the room. A reporter was talking, with a crime scene behind her, at Harvard Yard.<p>

"...not knowing what might have happened, the FBI with leading investigator Agent Olivia Dunham has released a statement saying that the disappearance of Brianna Orlbreck had occurred under 'unusual' circumstances and that they would be investigating it thoroughly. Meanwhile, anybody with any information that might be able to help, should contact-" Even further enraged, Faber had shut off the TV, and turned to the two men.

"Don't you realize what this means?" he yelled, "Now the fucking FBI is investigating! Not just the police, the FBI! Was I not clear enough when I said don't dose her yet?" This time he expected an answer, and when neither of the men said anything, he slammed his fist down again, making them tremble once more, "Answer me, damn it!"

Finally coming back to his senses, one of the men meekly spoke up, "I don't know for sure Sir..." seeing that Faber was about to lose it again, he quickly continued, "but I think the vials of the finished drug and the preliminary prep drug were confused, she must have been given some of the finished product instead..."

"That's fantastic," Faber muttered sarcastically, beginning to calm down and think more logically, "just fantastic. Okay, well now we need to find her before the FBI does, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Sir." Both men replied.

"And," he hissed, placing his hands on the table and leaning towards them menacingly so he was only centimeters apart from them, "when I say we need to find her, I mean your jobs and quite possibly your lives depend on it."

Nodding silently, both men stood and quickly left the room, closing the door behind them. Sighing, Faber leant back in his chair, as long as they found the girl, things would still be almost on track, now all they needed was a 'special' test subject, and he thought he might have found the perfect one. Picking up a file from under the table, he searched through it until he found what he was looking for. Taking a piece of paper, he scanned through the relatively short list of names until he saw it. Right there, about halfway through the list was the name 'Olivia Dunham'. At the top of the list was 'Cortexiphan Subjects: Jacksonville'. He knew that he had recognized the name after hearing it on the news, and now a plan was beginning to form in his head.

Brianna Orlbreck had been a normal subject for the preliminary drugs. Now that she was accidentally dosed, she could essentially teleport. However, since she was not a cortexiphan subject, she would not be able to control it. Only someone who had cortexiphan in their system since childhood would have control over the ability. He had always intended on taking a cortexiphan subject to do further tests on, but now his plan was almost coming together on its own.

Olivia Dunham was not only a cortexiphan subject, but she was also leading the investigation against him. Taking her was like killing two birds with one stone. His eyes flashing with the excitement of this change of events, Faber pulled his phone out, quickly dialing a number.

"Hello?" One of his men answered lazily.

"Get Saunders and tell him to pull everything he can on Olivia Dunham from the FBI database, then tell him to meet me." Faber commanded into his phone, not wanting to waste any time.

"Yes Sir," the man answered, "But he may not be in for a while, he is still at the Bureau."

"And his cover is still safe?"

"Yes," the man replied, "The FBI fully trusts him in working with the Fringe Division."

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><p><strong>AN: So, that was sorta kinda a cliffhanger, I don't know if it really worked, so I'd like it if you told me in a review, honestly!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Oh my gosh you guys! Thanks for the reviews! Every single one made me smile :) I never expected this many already! :) Anyway, this is a really long chapter, it just kept going on and on and I couldn't find a decent place to stop it, so here it is, enjoy!**

**References: There is a pretty short reference to radiation signatures from Power Hungry, but I use them in a different way.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Discovery<strong>

Olivia was growing more and more frustrated by the minute.

She had thoroughly read through every single paper there was on Brianna Orlbreck, yet she couldn't find a single thing about any drug study. Sighing, she instead turned to the other stack of files, all documents on recent drug studies conducted at Harvard. Deciding to start with looking at the overview, she skimmed all of the names of each study. Not finding anything out of the ordinary, she was about to move on when she noticed something in parentheses at the bottom of the page. Squinting closely at the small font, she could barely make out what it read, "One study, not included in the above list, was conducted by Excelsior Drugs on campus." Quickly setting down the paper, she took the stack of files, looking through all of them. She was looking for a file that read "Excelsior Drugs" on it, she had noticed that each of the studies on the list had their own file, but after searching through the entire stack, she didn't find anything.

Finally losing her patience, Olivia took out her phone to call Nina Sharp at Massive Dynamic, when Peter walked in. He was carrying two cups of coffee, and set one down in front of Olivia. Putting her phone back in her pocket, she smiled, "Thanks."

Peter just laughed, his blue eyes glowing, "Your welcome, did you find anything?"

Olivia sighed, "Yes and no," picking up the list of drug studies, she showed him the small font at the bottom of the page, "I found this, it says something about a company called Excelsior Drugs conducting a drug study at Harvard, but there wasn't a file on it. I was about to call Nina Sharp to see if she could find something for me."

He nodded, "Yeah, she would find something." Turning the cup of coffee in his hands, he leant back in the chair, "Walter might be onto something too."

Interested, Olivia looked up, "What did he find?"

"Well he seems to believe that Brianna Orlbreck didn't simply disappear. He thinks she might have essentially 'teleported' to a different location, he believes that the exact same radiation would be emitted from the place that she reappeared, so right now he is working on finding the radiation 'signature', he calls it."

"What makes him think that she 'teleported'?" Olivia asked. She had a hard time wrapping her head around what he had just said, was it really possible to teleport? Not that the idea would be so far-fetched compared to other things she had seen...

"Well apparently the type of radiation is almost the exact same as the radiation from tests he conducted in the '90's having to do with breaking apart the bodies molecules and combining them again in a different location. It seems like he knows more than he should with this case," Peter said quietly, looking at the ground, "I really hope he doesn't have anything to do with this one too..."

"Peter..." Olivia said softly, looking at him. She understood why he was worried, in fact, she was worried too, but it wouldn't help if she admitted that, "I'm sure we'll figure this out like we do every other time. Just because the event happened near the lab doesn't mean anything. Harvard is a famous school, and a student from there would be a good target."

"That doesn't explain how he knows about the radiation signatures." he muttered, still staring at the ground. He knew she was probably right, but that didn't stop him from worrying. Walter had something to do with their cases way more often than Peter would have liked, but nothing from this case pointed to it having to do with him.

Olivia could tell by his posture that he had internally given in to her argument, he was just denying it, "Walter knows almost everything when it comes to these cases, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise if he knows about this one too."

Looking back up, Peter smiled softly, Olivia noticed that his eyes had changed from a stormy grey back to deep blue. Peter cleared his throat, noticing her odd stare, making Olivia blush and turn away. He just grinned, "I guess you have a point. Thanks." Swiveling in his chair slightly, he set down his coffee on Olivia's desk and picked up the file she was looking at, "You sure there was nothing in here about Excelsior Drugs?"

Setting down her coffee as well, Olivia nodded, "Trust me, I triple checked. There isn't a single thing in there." With a sigh she leaned her elbows onto the desk and started rubbing small circles around her temples. She was starting to get a head ache.

Peter noticed her discomfort, "You ok?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I'm-"

"Fine. Yeah, sure you are." he said sarcastically, "Look, you've been sitting in here for three hours," getting up from his chair, he tilted his head toward the lab, "come on, let's go see if Walter has anything yet."

Olivia nodded, there was no point with arguing anyway, Peter would drag her out of the office if he had too, "Okay, fine." Getting up from her chair as well, she followed him into the lab. Approaching the desk Walter was working on, she could see Astrid off to the side, furiously typing away at the computer.

"Hey, Walter, have you found the signature yet?" Peter asked, as Walter fiddled around with a ballpoint pen. He didn't seem to have heard him, so Peter tried again, "Walter!"

Startled, Walter dropped the pen back onto the desk and looked up, "Oh, hello you two! I didn't see you there, did you want something?" Picking up the pen again, he continued to fiddle with it.

Beginning to get annoyed, Peter took a deep breath but was interrupted by Astrid, "Yes, he found a signature, I'm currently programming all the country's satellites to recognize the signature." she paused, "Assuming of course, that she is even on the planet."

Olivia nodded, looking over at Peter as he took the pen away from Walter and motioned for him to listen, "Then what? Will the satellites be able to tell us exactly where she is?"

"Well... yes and no. The satellites will only tell us where she reappeared, not where her actual location is. If she is still conscious, she will have probably moved." Astrid shrugged, "It'll help a lot though, it will seriously narrow down the possibilities. Since the satellites are just scanning the surface of the earth for the signature, it should only be a couple of minutes until we get something, if anything."

"Okay, that's good. I'll wait." She was about to head back to her office when she remembered something. Turning to Walter, she asked, "Walter, is it possible that this 'ability' of sorts that the victim has could be the result of a drug study or trial?"

Thinking for a minute, Walter slowly nodded his head, "Yes, yes, I believe so. Under these circumstances, the drugs would not necessarily need to have been given from an early age. I'd say that the victim has had these drugs in her system for at least eight months."

Peter thought for a moment on what Walter had just said. It was currently May. Eight months ago would be September, the start of the school year for some students. Turning to Olivia, he voiced his thoughts, "If that's the case, then she would have been dosed for the first time during September..."

"...which means that she was dosed during the school year." Olivia finished, catching up to his thoughts fairly quickly. That explained the drug study her boyfriend was talking about, now she _really_ needed to get some information on Excelsior Drugs. She was about to head down to Massive Dynamic herself, when Astrid looked up from the computer.

"We've got something," typing a few more things into the computer, she continued, "the signature appeared again in Montana."

Olivia was fairly surprised, "Montana? She went all the way from Boston to Montana?"

"You haven't even heard the best part," Astrid continued, "According to the satellites, she is pretty much in the middle of Flathead National Park, over one hundred miles from Helena"

"Okay," Peter said optimistically, seeing that Olivia was not too happy about the victims location, "That can be good, it means she can't be too far from the radiation signature, it shouldn't take too long to find her."

Olivia sighed, she knew it was more complicated than that, "I'll have to call Broyles and get permission. We'll probably have to form a small team to search for her too." remembering she needed to stop at Massive Dynamic, she added, "I have to go talk to Nina Sharp, I'll call Broyles on my way there." With that, she walked out the door, dialing Broyles' number.

After Olivia left, Peter turned to Astrid, knowing she had endured most of the day babysitting again, "You can go take a break, I can handle Walter from here."

Smiling gratefully at him, Astrid stood and collected some files, "Thank you Peter, I won't be long, I'll probably just grab something to eat." As she walked passed, she added, "You might want to get packed for Montana, I can pretty much guarantee your going."

Groaning, Peter knew Astrid was right. He also knew that he would not be bringing Walter along. Bringing him across the country was bad enough, but to a large forest with no one within at least fifty miles? Definitely not happening. "Hey Walter!" he called across the lab to where Walter was milking Gene, "How 'bout we go grab something to eat too? Your pick!"

Getting up excitedly from his stool, he clapped his hands, "Oh, I have been craving Chinese food for quite some time now," he said, "I especially love the use of chop sticks, it took me many months to master the art of using them, but after a bit, I finally got it!"

"Right," Peter said, smiling, "Chinese it is." He then walked out the door, with Walter hot on his heels.

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><p>From down the hall, hidden in a sea of students, Agent Jason Saunders watched as Peter and Walter exited the lab, Peter locking the door behind him. Once he was sure they weren't coming back, he casually walked up to the lab doors and looked around him to see if anyone was watching. All of the students just passed right by him, either not noticing or caring that an FBI agent was in their school. Satisfied that he had gone unnoticed, he quickly picked the lock and slipped inside the lab.<p>

Scanning the area, he noticed a cow in the corner of the large room. Groaning internally he continued to the desks. He hated cows. When he was young, one had tried to plow him over, and succeeded. Looking down at the mass of papers, he knew it would take a while to find something. Then he noticed a slip of paper near the computer. Heading over to the other desk, he picked up the paper and skimmed it over. Scrawled across it, in blue pen, was 'Victims Reappearance Location: Flathead National Forest, Montana 47.802087. -113.285522'. Smiling, he took out his own paper and rewrote the coordinates, Faber was going to like this. Turning back to the pile of papers, he left the note right where it was, seemingly untouched.

After searching through the pile, Saunders came to the conclusion that there was nothing on Olivia Dunham in any of them. He was about to try the computer when his phone rang. Cursing, he saw that it was his new boss, Broyles. Knowing he couldn't just ignore the call, he answered, "Saunders."

"Agent Saunders," Broyles said, "We have a lead on the case regarding Brianna Orlbreck. We might have found her location, Flathead National Forest, Montana. I'm forming a search party, but because of the secrecy of this case it may take a few days. For now, I'm sending you, Agent Olivia Dunham, and a civilian consultant, Peter Bishop to search. Your flight leaves tomorrow, I'll send you the details via email." he paused, awaiting a response from the agent.

Saunders couldn't believe his luck. Not only did he know where the girl was, he'd be able to get Olivia Dunham, something he knew Faber really wanted. The only problem now was this Peter Bishop guy. "With all due respect Sir, are you sure you want a civilian consultant to be searching with us? He may not be prepared."

Broyles snorted into the phone, "I have known Peter Bishop for a while now, believe me he will be fine, now I suggest you get packed and contact Agent Dunham, she isn't yet aware of who she is going with. Am I clear?"

Well that made things a little more complicated, "Yes Sir." Hanging up, he sighed. He was going to have to get Olivia Dunham with Peter Bishop in the way, but it would be fine. He had already gotten extremely lucky in being able to go search with her. Now he just needed to tell Faber. Deciding that he had already gotten enough information, he got up and headed out the lab doors, quietly shutting them behind him.

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><p>Faber was sitting at his desk, growing frustrated with his scientists. They had been researching for hours, but still couldn't tell him where Brianna was. Granted, they had the disadvantage of not being able to see the crime scene, but they were the ones who made the drugs in the first place! They, of all people, should know!<p>

His late friend, David Robert Jones had always wanted to experiment with cortexiphan subjects, and Faber was sure that had he done the experiments, he wouldn't have failed. Not that they had failed yet, things just weren't running as smoothly as he would have hoped.

David would have been thrilled to know that he was continuing his work. Which is why Faber had to succeed, in honor of his friend. The FBI would pay for his death, he vowed. Hearing his door open, he looked up, ready to yell at whoever it was. Seeing that it was Saunders, he instead kicked his feet up onto his desk, "Have you got anything?"

Smiling, Saunders sat down on the chair in front of Faber's desk, "Oh yeah," taking out the paper with Brianna's location on it, he handed it to Faber, "That's the girls location, and, Philip Broyles has asked me to help Olivia Dunham search for her, along with one other guy."

Setting the paper down on the desk, Faber clasped his hands together, "Good work. When are you leaving to Montana?"

"Sometime tomorrow, it'll only be us three, the search party will arrive a few days later."

"Okay," Faber said, pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, "Here's the plan, you'll go down there with them, and help search. Once in the forest you'll get Olivia Dunham. Now I'll make myself clear on this one part," he said, putting emphasis on his last sentence, "You cannot drug her in any way, no tranquilizers, not even any sleeping pills. She can't have any drugs in her system for the experiment. You also can't knock her out, she can't have a concussion."

"Can I use force if necessary?" Saunders asked, wondering how the hell he was supposed to take down an FBI agent without any tranquilizers.

"Yes, no blows to the head though. If you need to slow her down or something, you can shoot her in the leg or something, but no more, understood?"

Nodding, Saunders then asked, "Then what? I'll be over thirty miles from any civilization!" considering that he wouldn't be allowed to knock her out, she'd have a fairly easy time getting away.

"I'll have some of my men set up a camp a few miles from your location, you can contact them when you have her. You will all stay at the camp and continue searching for Brianna, once you find her you will bring both of them straight here."

"Okay, I'll call you when I get a chance." Standing up, he headed to the door then stopped, looking over his shoulder, "What about the other guy?"

"Do whatever you want with him, I don't care."

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><p><strong>AN: So, how was it? Tell me in a review please!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for not updating this yesterday! I had an unbelievable amount of homework last night and didn't have time to work on the story, so I waited until today. As always, thanks for the reviews! Oh, and this chapter jumps around a lot so if you don't like it, sorry :/ Anway, Enjoy! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4: Flight<strong>

Olivia walked out of Massive Dynamic empty handed. Nina hadn't found anything right away, but had assured Olivia that if she found anything, she would be the first to know. Now all she had to do was pack for Montana, something that she was not looking forward to.

Since Brianna was in the middle of a National Forest, they would be driving on a beat up path for most of the way, but hiking for the last few miles. Any other case they would at least have a forest ranger escorting them, but because of all the secrecy, they were on their own. Speaking of which, who was 'they'? She knew that Peter was coming along, something that she was extremely grateful for, but Broyles had said that another agent would be with them. She didn't like the idea of having another agent come along, he or she would probably be inexperienced. In the back of her head, she also knew that another reason she didn't want another agent was probably because she wanted some alone time with Peter. If it had been just them, searching, she would have enjoyed it a lot more. She also knew that that would be impractical.

As she stepped into her car, her phone rang. Reaching into her pocket, she took it out and looked at the I.D., expecting it to be Broyles. Not recognizing the number, she cautiously answered, "Dunham."

"Hello Agent Dunham," a man said smoothly into the phone, "I'm Agent Saunders, I'm going to be helping you out with the search for Brianna Orlbreck. Broyles wanted me to let you know."

Olivia grimaced, she didn't like this guy already, he sounded cocky, "Okay, I'll see you at the airport then."

She was about to hang up, when he replied eerily, "See you soon... Agent Dunham." then without another word, he hung up.

Olivia shivered unconsciously, his tone seemed to imply something else, but she couldn't think about that right now. Starting the car, she pulled out of the parking lot, heading home to pack.

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><p>The next day, Peter and Olivia arrived at the private airport, waiting for the plane to depart. Looking around, Olivia realized that Saunders was nowhere to be seen. Setting down her small bag, she headed over to one of the other agents.<p>

"Excuse me, but have you seen the other agent that is supposed to be here with us? He should be here by now." when the agent shook his head apologetically, Olivia sighed. This guy really wasn't leaving a good first impression.

Over on the other side of the small lobby, Peter was giving Astrid a few last minute tips on what to do with Walter, "...and if you need anything, just call me, though I can't guarantee I'll answer considering we'll be in the middle of nowhere."

Astrid nodded, "Yeah, I know Peter, we've been through this over a dozen times. Don't worry, he'll be fine."

Peter yawned, "Yeah, I'm sure he will be, it's just that I haven't had much sleep thanks to him over the last few days... In case you couldn't tell." Walter had been even more eccentric than ever the past few nights. He had remembered one of his favorite candies, and had set out to try and recreate it. That's how he had broken the stove a few days earlier.

Laughing, Astrid just shook her head, "Oh I could tell, trust me." Looking over his shoulder, she could see Olivia approaching, "Okay, well since it seems like you two are all set, I'm going to go and help Walter out at the lab, see you soon!"

"Yeah, thanks for the ride, see you soon." he replied as she walked away. Turning around, he came face to face with a very annoyed looking Olivia, "What's wrong?" he asked, trying to figure out what was bothering her.

"The other agent that's supposed to be searching with us hasn't showed up yet," Olivia replied, searching the lobby for him as she spoke, "and were leaving in ten minutes."

That wasn't good. All agents, or in his case, civilian consultants, were supposed to arrive at least a half hour before departure to check in. Curious, Peter asked, "Who is this guy anyway?"

"Agent Jason Saunders, he's fairly new, which is why I didn't want to bring him along to begin with, but it's Broyles' choice, not mine." Pulling out her phone, she was about to call Broyles and tell him about Saunders when she saw a tall man walk into the lobby, bag in hand. Sighing, she nudged Peter, getting his attention, and walked towards the man, expecting an explanation.

"I'm Agent Dunham," she said, holding out her hand, "and this is Peter Bishop, I'm assuming your Saunders?"

"You assume correctly, Agent Dunham," he replied, shaking her hand and nodding respectfully at Peter, "Sorry for being late, there was a car crash, lot's of traffic." In reality that wasn't true, he had been briefing Faber's men on what they were to do when they set up camp in Montana, it had just taken him a lot longer than he had anticipated.

Olivia nodded, she didn't fully believe what he had said, but decided on ignoring it for now, "Okay, well you're going to have to check in quickly over there." She said, pointing towards an agent, "We're leaving soon."

"Thank you." he said as he picked up his bag and headed towards the agent, "I'll be back shortly."

Once he was out of earshot, Olivia turned to Peter, "What do you think?"

"Of him? I don't really know, seems okay, why?" Peter asked, noticing that she didn't seem to like him. Truthfully, Peter didn't like him very much either, but he couldn't say that when he had hardly met the guy.

"I don't really know..." Olivia replied slowly, not wanting to tell him about the call from the day before, "He just seems... suspicious, know what I mean?"

Peter knew exactly what she meant, "Yeah, but it's a bit early to be making judgments," Picking up his and Olivia's bags, he started towards the exit to board the plane, "Let's go, we have to deal with him anyway, so let's get this over with."

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><p>A few hours later, there plane landed in Helena, Montana. Even though it was spring, it was fairly chilly and clouds covered the sky. Even though it was just a plane ride, Peter was exhausted, and by looking over at Olivia, as she stepped out of the plane, he could tell she wasn't much better. Saunders trailed behind, not looking any more alert than Olivia. A forest ranger met them after they entered the building.<p>

"I'm Ranger Molly Field, but you can call me Molly," The ranger said, smiling warmly as she shook Olivia's hand, "You must be Agent Dunham!"

Olivia smiled back, despite how tired she was, "Yes, and it is nice to meet you Molly," she turned to introduce Peter and Saunders, "This is Peter Bishop and Agent Saunders, they'll be helping out."

"Of course," Molly replied, nodding at them, "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," Peter said groggily, he hadn't slept in at least 36 hours, "Any idea what time we'll be arriving at the forest?"

Molly thought for a moment, "Well, it will probably only take three hours to get to the edge of the forest, but from there you're on your own, so I don't know how long it will take you to get to your exact location."

Before Peter could respond, Saunders quickly said, "Okay, well we don't want to arrive late, so let's get a move on, shall we?"

With that, Molly turned around and headed towards the door, Olivia, Peter, and Saunders following closely behind.

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><p>Dressed in a lab coat, Faber watched as his scientists worked to perfect the drug for when they had the girl and the FBI agent. The girl was only to be a control test subject, while Olivia Dunham would be the actual experiment.<p>

"Are there any other specifications in the way you want them captured?" he asked, watching one of the women add a drop of red liquid to the drug.

At first she didn't respond, concentrating on the drug, but when she was done she looked up, "Nothing other than what we've already told you, although it would be preferable to not have either of them shot..." she trailed off, knowing that they had already discussed this before.

Faber sighed, "You already said we can't knock them out or drug them, the girl wouldn't be a problem but the other one is an FBI agent! They won't shoot her unless necessary, but she won't go down easy. How preferable is it, anyway?"

Very preferable, she thought to herself, though she wouldn't admit that to him. "It's not necessary, never mind," she mumbled, looking down at the drug as though it was the most interesting thing in the world, not wanting to make eye contact with her boss, "The drug for the girl should be ready soon, the one for the FBI agent may take a while however."

Not noticing her discomfort, Faber nodded, moving further down the lab table to see how his other scientists were doing. Letting out a deep breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, the woman thought back to how she'd gotten in this mess.

She had been looking for a job, and in the paper there was an ad for a drug researcher, something she had studied in college. Interested, she had called in, and they had accepted her. At first it was fairly normal work, but soon she and the other researchers were given drugs that she had never heard of before. She was the only new worker, so all the others were used to it, but she was nervous.

One day, Faber had noticed her nervousness and pulled her aside. He had told her the plans for the drugs they were making, and when she wanted to leave, he threatened her with the lives of her family. He had also raised her pay considerably, but she couldn't think about that. It disgusted her to think about what she was doing, but she was stuck.

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><p>"Here we are!" Molly said cheerfully, pulling over to the side of the road where a dirt path led into the forest, with an extremely beat up looking truck at the edge of it. Not hearing a response, she looked over her shoulder to find the man and woman asleep. Saunders, who had been sitting in the front, also looked back. Sure enough, Peter and Olivia were asleep, Olivia curled into Peter's side with his arm draped over her shoulders, holding her close. Seeing her gun holstered at her hip, Saunders got an idea.<p>

"Hey," he said to the forest ranger pleasantly, "Do you think you could prep the truck and move some of the supplies into it? I'll wake these two up in a second, but they seem really tired, I'll be out to help in a second."

"Sure, it won't take that long," stepping out of the car, she turned to face Saunders, "By the way, are these two a couple? Because I could have sworn that wasn't allowed in the FBI..."

Smiling, Saunders replied, "No I don't think so, but to tell you the truth I hardly know them." Watching as the ranger finally left the car and approached the truck, he let his smile drop. Moving quickly, he got out of the car and shut the door behind him quietly. He then approached the door closest to Olivia and slowly opened it. Neither Peter or Olivia had moved an inch. Holding his breath, Saunders reached over and gently grasped the gun, resting his other hand on the seat. Pausing for a second to see if they had woken up, he looked back towards the ranger, seeing that she was still moving around in the truck. Turning back to Olivia, he ever so gently tugged on the gun, letting it slide smoothly out of the holster. Slowly letting his breath out, he swiftly emptied the gun of its bullets, pocketing them in his jacket, hidden from view.

"You going to wake them up or what?" Molly called from the truck, startling him. She was in the back, rummaging through the stuff that she had loaded in there before.

"Uh yeah," he called back, turning back to Olivia, "I'll be there in a sec." Quickly, he slid the gun back into its place in the holster. Grabbing her shoulder, he gently shook her, "Agent Dunham, wake up, we've arrived."

Stirring in her sleep, Olivia's hand brushed over her gun. Holding his breath, he waited for her to say something. Luckily for him, she was too out of it to be fully aware of what had happened. Shaking her once more, he said more loudly, "Agent Dunham, wake up."

Finally beginning to wake up, Olivia groaned, trying to stretch but was stopped by Peter's arm. Opening her eyes, she noticed that he had his arm over her and blushed brightly, gently taking it and lifting it off of her. Looking outside, she could see that the sun was beginning to set, and that it looked beautiful with all the warm colors dancing in the sky. Coming to her senses, she turned to Saunders, ignoring his amused grin, "Did we just arrive?"

Saunders shook his head, "No, but it hasn't been that long. You should wake up Bishop and come out, were loading up the truck." closing the car door, he left and headed towards the truck to help out.

Sighing, Olivia rubbed her eyes. She couldn't believe Saunders had seen her and Peter like that. She really hoped he wouldn't say anything to Broyles, not that it mattered. The man wasn't blind.

Looking down at Peter, she noticed that he looked so much more calmer when he was asleep. His face was relaxed, and he seemed less burdened. Yawning, she softly shook him, "Peter wake up, were here."

Opening his eyes, he sat up, oblivious to how he had had his arm around her before. "Wow," he said blearily, stretching out his arms, "it's amazing what two hours of sleep can do for a guy." Looking outside, he saw Saunders and Molly preparing the truck.

Laughing, Olivia opened the car door and stepped outside, "That's good, because we're in for another long night, we have to drive about thirty miles down this trail. It's going to be slow."

Peter groaned and stepped out of the car behind her, heading to the back of the car to unpack their bags.

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><p><strong>AN: So, how was it? Was I jumping around too much or was it fine? This was the only chapter that jumped THIS much so don't worry. :) Review Please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Here's the next chapter, enjoy! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 5: Caught Off Guard<strong>

It had almost been two hours, and they were still driving down the trail in the pitch black with nothing but the headlights to guide them.

Peter had insisted on driving, saying that he had experience when it came to driving on rough ground. After a bit of arguing, Olivia gave in, deciding that she was tired anyway. Saunders couldn't have cared less, and just went with whatever Olivia decided.

Over the course of thirty miles, the trail had deteriorated from bad to worse. It was obvious that this trail hadn't been used in a long time, and Peter had to detour from it occasionally to avoid trees growing in the middle of it.

Eventually, the trail stopped. There was nowhere to go but backwards on it now. Yawning, Peter slowed the truck to a stop and killed the lights. Turning on the smaller light in the truck, he looked over at Olivia. She was curled up on the passenger seat, facing the window. Smiling to himself, he grabbed a blanket from behind his seat and gently covered her with it. She stirred a little bit, fisting the blanket in her hand. Saunders was sprawled across the narrow back seat of the car, snoring quietly. Yawning again, he turned to his side and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

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><p>Saunders woke with cramps in almost every part of his body. The back seat of the truck was way too small for a man his size, but he had slept there anyway. Now, he was going to regret it, especially since they had to hike a few miles. Sitting up, he noticed that Peter and Olivia were still asleep. Realizing that this was his chance to contact Faber, he quickly got out of the truck and checked the time: 5:23 AM. No wonder they were still asleep, it was still really early.<p>

Quietly heading to the back of the truck, he grabbed his bag and rummaged through it. He was trying to find his encrypted phone, the one that the FBI wouldn't be able to trace. Finding it, he headed into the forest, out of earshot of the truck.

Once he was satisfied with his distance from the truck, Saunders stopped and pulled a map of the area from his pocket, setting it down on a fallen tree. About two miles northeast from the general location of the girl, he marked an X. That was where Faber's men were going to set up camp. It was next to a river, giving them an easy escape route. Taking out the phone, he called Faber, hoping he was awake.

"This had better be good," Faber said groggily into the phone, answering on the fifth ring.

"Well, nothing special really," Saunders replied, knowing he wouldn't get in trouble since he was doing a fine job, "just telling you that we've arrived at the end of the trail and were going to be hiking from here on out. You might want to tell your men to be ready."

"Will do," Faber said, starting to wake up and get an edge to his voice again, "You'd better not fuck this up Saunders, we've had too many mistakes for me to handle another one." Not giving Saunders a chance to respond, he hung up.

Sighing, Saunders shut off the phone. He knew Faber was serious, he had grown extremely impatient ever since the girl had disappeared. However, what he didn't know, was why he wanted Agent Dunham. Faber had never specified why he wanted her, just that he wanted her as soon as possible. He would ask why, but Faber wasn't the kind of guy that liked to be questioned, he had learned that the hard way.

Running his hand through his hair, Saunders folded up the map and placed the phone in his pocket. Turning in the direction of the truck, he headed back, silently praying that Bishop and Agent Dunham were still asleep. To his disappointment, as he neared the truck, he could see both of them walking around, packing a few last minute things into the bags.

"Where were you?" Olivia asked, as he stepped into view. She had seen him from the corner of her eye, and it seemed like he didn't want to be noticed.

"Just taking a nice morning walk," Saunders replied smoothly, not going with the typical 'bathroom' excuse, "I'm used to waking up this early so I thought I would just look around for a bit."

"Oh okay," she said, her suspicion of him growing, "Well were getting ready to go, you might want to pack."

"Okay." he replied, grabbing his bag and making sure everything he needed was still in it. He had a few extra things just in case, an extra gun, chloroform (even though Faber said not to use it), and duct tape. Once he was satisfied with what he had, Saunders threw his backpack over his shoulder, ready to go.

"You ready?" Peter said, approaching him from behind and catching him off guard.

"Uh yeah, is Agent Dunham?"

"Yep, were heading out now, if we walk at a steady pace we should get to the location around 5:00." he replied, heading into the forest where Olivia already was. Following behind, Saunders knew that all he had to do now, was wait.

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><p>A while later, Saunders checked his watch, 4:12 PM. They had been continuously hiking for about nine hours now, and were starting to get close to the location. He had to act soon. Running over the possibilities in his head, he took in a few factors: He had emptied Agent Dunham's gun, and assuming that she hadn't reloaded it, she couldn't shoot him. Peter Bishop would be in the way, but he wasn't an idiot. If Saunders threatened to shoot Agent Dunham, he knew Bishop would stand down. They might try to run, but it would be hard to get anywhere in the dense forest. After considering these things, Saunders decided that it would be best to get to the point and catch them off guard.<p>

Olivia was in the lead, with Peter not far behind. Slowing to a stop, Saunders dropped his bag, ready to run if need be. Peter noticed that he had stopped first, and had turned around.

"What are you doing?" he asked, getting slightly annoyed, "We just stopped ten minutes ago!" Hearing the commotion behind her, Olivia stopped as well, walking back to stand beside Peter.

"I know," Saunders said slowly, watching the two of them like a hawk. Then, before either could react, he grabbed his gun and pointed it at Olivia, "I just need to get down to business."

Imitating Saunders actions, Olivia took her gun and pointed it at him as well, a look of shock on her face, "What the hell are you doing?" Peter just watched Saunders, shocked and wondering the same thing Olivia was.

"Like I just said," he replied coldly, keeping the gun aimed at Olivia's chest, "I needed to get down to business. Now put the gun down and both of you get on your knees."

Neither of them moved an inch, instead Olivia went into FBI mode, "Okay, this is what's going to happen, _you_ are going to put the gun down, and _you_ are going to get on your knees." Clicking the safety back on her gun, she had a determined look on her face, not going to back down.

Saunders was worried for a second. He had emptied her gun a day ago, she might have noticed it was empty and reloaded it since then. If that was the case, he was screwed. Deciding to find out whether or not she knew, he laughed, saying, "Your gun isn't loaded princess, so like I said, get down on your knees."

Olivia's face blanked for a moment, shocked and caught off guard. Saunders smiled, realizing that she hadn't reloaded the gun, and took a step closer. Snapping out of it, Olivia decided to test what he said and pointed at a tree, pulling the trigger back. _Click._ At that moment, the gravity of the situation came down on her and she looked back at Saunders, gun still in hand.

Before she could say anything, Peter spoke, with a threatening tone in his voice, "Were not moving an inch until you tell us what the hell is going on." Then, he took a small step forward so he was slightly in front of Olivia.

"_You_ are going to stay here," Saunders said pointedly, then turned to Olivia, "And _you_ are coming with me." he paused, allowing his words to sink in, "_That_ is what's going on."

At this point, Olivia had checked her gun, and sure enough, it was empty. Disgusted, she tossed it to the ground, wanting it nearby just in case. Then she turned around with her hand on her head, motioning for Peter to do the same. There was no way she was going with this guy without a fight, but she needed to catch him by surprise.

Peter complied, following her motions, but knew from the look in her eyes that she didn't plan on cooperating. Getting on his knees, he watched Saunders out of the corner of his eye, "Better watch out buddy, wouldn't want to trip and fall." he said sarcastically, as Saunders stumbled over a tree root.

Keeping the gun poised at Olivia's back, Saunders took out his handcuffs and cuffed her hands behind her back, ignoring Peter's remark. Realizing that he didn't have a pair for Peter, he cursed and decided to deal with him quickly. Looking back at Olivia, he said, "Don't move or I'll put a bullet through your friends head." She nodded slowly, thinking of a way to escape.

Satisfied that Olivia wouldn't move, Saunders took the gun and put it up to Peter's head. With his other hand, he went through his bag until he found what he was looking for: chloroform. Taking a cloth, he dumped some of the chloroform onto it, allowing it to absorb. Quickly, without warning, he brought the cloth over Peter's mouth and nose, pressing the gun painfully into his head all the while.

Peter recognized the sweet scent immediately. He knew it was chloroform and had dealt with it many times before. Not breathing, he struggled violently but stopped when Saunders hissed in his ear, "I don't have to keep you alive, so I strongly suggest you stop moving."

Now Peter knew what to do. Still not breathing, he let his body begin to go limp, pretending to react to the drug. After another few seconds, he completely collapsed to the ground with his eyes shut, wincing at the impact of the rocks on the ground. He then pretended to be unconscious, hearing Olivia say, "What did you do? If you just want me then leave him alone!"

"Shut up, bitch," Peter heard Saunders reply, along with the sound of his fading footsteps. He had now turned away from Peter.

This was his chance. Quickly, he opened his eyes and kicked Saunders in the back of the knees. Saunders cried out in shock, pulling the trigger of his gun on accident with a bang. He then fell to the ground, the gun flying from his hands into the brush, nowhere to be seen. Not wasting a second, Peter got up from the ground and rushed to Olivia, who was now lying against a tree, gasping.

She was holding her side, and when Peter looked to see what was wrong he saw that she had been shot. The bullet had just skimmed her side and missed any vital organs, but the blood was flowing freely. As she gasped, Olivia struggled to keep her eyes open.

Peter hissed, trying to stay calm, "Livia, it's fine, just concentrate on something else, okay? Stay awake for me, concentrate on something else." As he was saying that, he ripped a part of his sleeve off and tied it around her waist, temporarily stopping the blood flow. As he held the cloth, he kept repeating, "Concentrate on something else, you're gonna be fine." He was saying that more to keep himself calm than Olivia.

Saunders had now gotten up and was heading to his bag to grab his back up gun. He had hit his head on a fairly large rock and his head was throbbing in pain. Peter looked up from his position, and as soon as he saw Saunders, lunged for the bag, but Saunders beat him to it and ran out of reach, looking through the bag for the gun.

Making a split second decision, Peter ran back to Olivia and scooped her up into his arms. Whimpering in pain, she closed her eyes and buried her head into his shoulder, biting hard on her lip to prevent herself from screaming. Looking back at Saunders, who was still searching for the gun, Peter ran as fast as he could into the forest, not knowing what to do next.

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><p><strong>AN: Review please! It doesn't take that much and I really appreciate it, thanks! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

** A/N: Sorry this took so long, school is almost over and I have lots of things to do, plus, I'm going to be busy all weekend so the next update might even take longer. :/ Sorry about that, but here's this chapter, thanks for the reviews, enjoy! :) **

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><p><strong>Chapter 6: Capture<strong>

Stumbling alongside the stream, Brianna was on the brink of insanity. She had drank the nearby water, but she hadn't been able to find anything to eat. Now it seemed like the water was doing more damage than help, it made her hunger echo throughout her whole body.

Collapsing on her knees, she bent down to get another sip of water and cringed when it hit her stomach. Doubling over on the ground she groaned, waiting for the cramps to go away.

As she was lying there, she was startled by a loud bang, like a gun shot. Jumping a bit, she started to stand when she noticed a bright white light closing in on her. "Oh no," She moaned, as she realized what was happening again, "No, no, no, no..."

Desperate, she reached for a nearby tree, trying to keep herself where she was, but it was pointless, all she could see now was white. The throbbing in her head returned and she tried to keep from screaming, holding her head in her hands.

Moments later, the throbbing stopped and slowly, she looked around her. She was in an alley way of a busy city. It was unusually hot for spring, and when she stepped out onto the main street, she became scared. It was a normal city, but all the signs were written in a different language. They used English letters, but they were not English words. When she say the word hola on a nearby sign, the truth dawned on her. She was in a Spanish city.

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><p>"This isn't good," Saunders chanted in his head as he fumbled with the gun and quickly loaded it, "This isn't good. At. All." Throwing his bag to the ground, he sprinted deeper into the forest, following Peter's trail. Not only had they just escaped, he had accidentally shot Dunham. Faber had made sure to specify to only use force if necessary. If he didn't get them, he was done for, and now, he wasn't messing around, he would shoot Bishop if he had to.<p>

Grunting from the pain in his head, he stopped for a second, they couldn't have gotten much further than where he was. The forest was too dense. Turning in a circle he listened, closely, waiting for a single mistake to be made.

Saunders had actually overestimated where they were by a few yards. Peter had been fine running for a while, but the small amount of chloroform he had inhaled was making him dizzy. He had veered off to the right and stopped, setting Olivia down behind a large rock. She still had her hands cuffed behind her back, but he couldn't do anything about that for the moment. Sitting beside her, he checked her wound, noticing that the blood was still bleeding profusely.

Olivia had her head back against the rock, breathing heavily. Peter had ripped his other sleeve, holding it against her side, when he heard heavy footsteps fly past them, then stop. Sucking in his breath, he froze, Olivia stiffened as well.

"I know you're somewhere out there, so do yourselves a favor and come out!" Peter heard Saunders yell. He had definitely lost his patience. Slowly letting his breath out, he handed the cloth to Olivia and motioned for her to stay where she was as he stood. She furiously shook her head, trying to reach out and grabbed him but was stopped by the handcuffs. Bringing his finger to his lips, he mouthed the words, "Be right back." Turning around in Saunders direction, he hoped he wasn't lying.

There was a fairly large tree about three yards from where Saunders was standing, and standing behind it, Peter picked up a thick branch. Closing his eyes for a moment, he waited for a good moment. Deciding that sooner was better than later, Peter jumped out from behind the tree, bringing the branch around towards Saunders' head. About halfway around, the branch snagged on a vine, alerting Saunders just as the branch hit him square between the shoulder blades, but not hard enough.

Jumping at the blow, Saunders turned around, swinging the gun in the direction of the sound, and came face to face with a chagrined Peter. Smiling, Saunders straightened up and was about to say something when he noticed that Agent Dunham was nowhere to be seen. That bastard. Letting his smile drop, he raised the gun from Peter's chest to his head, "Where is Dunham?" he spat out, putting emphasis on each word. He was done playing games.

Slowly raising his hands above his head, Peter smirked, "Haven't a clue."

After that comment, Saunders could confirm that this guy was a pain in the ass. Bishop seemed to know that he couldn't get shot, since Agent Dunham wasn't around. "You want this the hard way then?" he threatened, Peter responded by shrugging his shoulders mockingly, "Okay, you're getting it the hard way."

Approaching Peter, he took his gun and swung it around, connecting it with his jaw. Peter's head snapped back and he tasted blood, but he couldn't react to it. Straightening again, he spat out some blood and continued to stand there, not saying a word.

Olivia's wrists were red from the strain of trying to get out of the handcuffs. She had heard Saunders approach Peter, and she was desperately trying to get up, but the shot in her side didn't give her enough strength to do it without her hands. She was completely helpless, and she knew that, which was why she needed to give up. Neither her or Peter stood a chance, and she needed to do something about her side, otherwise it would get infected.

Getting an idea, Olivia twisted so she was facing the rock. Leaning her head against the rock, she pushed herself up, stumbling as she stood. Sighing she walked to Peter and Saunders, hoping Peter was fine.

"I'm here. Leave him alone and I'll come with you without a problem." She said, approaching Saunders from behind Peter.

After Olivia said that, Saunders realized that Peter might actually be useful. He wouldn't be able to carry her, so Peter could for him, especially since she didn't look to good. He could also threaten her with him. Yes, this would work. "Actually, Bishop is coming with us," he said, keeping the gun on Peter, "But if either of you try anything, he's dead."

Olivia only nodded, about to take a step forward when she collapsed. She couldn't feel the pain anymore, her side had gone numb, but she assumed that it was getting bad. Peter slowly picked her up at the commands of Saunders, and before she knew it, they were heading somewhere in the forest. Her mind wandered in and out of awareness and she lost track of time.

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><p>Brianna was terrified and confused. From what she had seen, it looked like she was in Mexico, but she didn't know any Spanish. She had stumbled through the streets, and while many people noticed her, none stopped to ask her what was wrong.<p>

She wanted to get to a phone, but she didn't want to ask anyone for one, not yet at least. But after ten minutes of wandering and not seeing a single payphone, she decided to just ask someone.

She saw a woman with a purse across the street, and taking her chances, she headed over, "Excuse me," she said, and the woman looked up, not understanding, "do you have a cell phone I could use?"

The only thing the woman got from that was 'cell phone'. But after taking in the girls look, she assumed she wanted a phone, "Tu quieres un telefono?"

Brianna had no idea what the woman was saying, but she heard a word that sounded like telephone so she nodded, saying one of the only Spanish words she knew, "Si."

The woman smiled and took out her cell phone, handing it to Brianna. Taking the phone, Brianna smiled and dialed her friends number, but when she brought the phone to her ear, she realized that this woman wasn't allowed to make calls outside whatever country this was.

Frustrated, Brianna quickly handed the phone back to the woman and muttered a quick "Thank you." She then headed off, desperate to get out of this place.

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><p>Peter was still carrying Olivia when they arrived at a camp in a small clearing. She was now unconscious and her breathing was shallow. Saunders was behind them, and he gave Peter a shove, "Set Dunham down in that tent over there, my men will take care of her wound."<p>

Peter turned around, "Yeah, they'd better. And if they do anything else," he said in a menacing voice, "You will pay for it."

Saunders chuckled, "Yeah, right. Well you don't have anything to worry about anyway, I've got the same direct orders from the boss...for now. Hurry up."

Not satisfied in the least, Peter entered the tent and set Olivia down on a cot, he would think about what Saunders meant by 'boss' later. "Now what?" he said, looking at Saunders.

Thinking for a moment, he headed out the tent, "Come with me." he went to a bag and pulled out another set of handcuffs, then, he took Peter by the arm and roughly brought him to the edge of the clearing. "Sit down with your back to the tree." Saunders commanded as they approached a medium sized pine tree.

Peter obeyed, not wanting to mess with the guy. Once he sat down, Saunders took his wrists and brought them back around the tree, cuffing them. It was extremely uncomfortable, but he could deal with it. Before Saunders could walk away too far, Peter decided to remark, "So, you have a plan from here? Or is this all as you go?"

Saunders stopped in his tracks and turned to face Peter with an annoyed look on his face, "That is none of your business." With that, he left Peter at the base of the tree to think about his and Olivia's situation.

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><p>Olivia became aware after she felt a stinging pain in her side. She tried to struggle against it but was held back by restraints on her wrists and ankles. Gasping in pain as she opened her eyes, she looked up to find three men she didn't know dressed in lab coats surrounding her.<p>

"Who are you? What do you want?" She said trying to remember what had happened before.

"We are helping you get better." One of the men replied, as he continued to wipe the blood that had caked onto her side.

Wincing, Olivia shook her head vehemently, "No, stop lying. What are you doing to me?"

The man looked up from his work, "Stay calm or we won't hesitate to sedate you." he said coldly.

Resting her head back against the cot, Olivia shut her eyes, trying to think straight. She couldn't remember much from before, but it was slowly coming back to her. Her being handcuffed, Peter trying to get both of them away, the shot, Saunders... When she remembered Saunders, she stiffened. The men looked at her, noticing her change in posture, but they didn't say anything.

She remembered now. Saunders, that son of a bitch Saunders had betrayed them and that's why she and most likely Peter were here. With her eyes flashing, she slammed her hands against the restraints and brought her head back up, "Where the hell is Saunders?" she hissed, struggling to get off the cot. The men didn't reply, instead steadying the cot as it tipped dangerously to one side. "Where is he?" She yelled, this time thrashing around, ignoring the pain in her side.

Caught off guard, the men scrambled to steady the cot again, but Olivia didn't stop. Throwing her weight to one side, she caused the cot to tip over and fall on its side. It hit the ground with a crash and she narrowly missed hitting her head on the ground.

"Okay that's it." one of the men growled as he righted the cot, "Get me that sedative."

Finally calming down, Olivia tried acting rational. "No," she said, breathing heavily, "Please, just at least tell me if Peter is here." Laying her head back, she hoped he had gotten away.

The man stopped just as he was about to inject her. "You mean that other guy who the boss brought with you? Yeah he's here."

The only good thing about that was that it meant he wasn't dead. Worried, Olivia let herself relax slightly as the man injected her, sending her into oblivion.

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><p><strong>AN: So, how was it? Review please! I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can, but it may take longer than usual.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So... this kind of took a little longer than planned, sorry for that, once school is out the updates will be a lot faster. I also really appreciate the reviews! I'd like to say a special thank you to Amy, who has reviewed almost every chapter. I would send you a private message, but your not a member, so thank you! Your reviews help me a lot! Thanks to everyone else too. Anyway, here's the next chapter, enjoy! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 7: Ruined Plans<strong>

"I've got Dunham." Saunders said into the phone, laying back in his tent at 11:00 at night, "I've also got the other guy, Bishop, I think he might be useful."

"Good work," Faber replied, a little hesitant, "But if you can't handle another person, don't let him drag you down." he seemed worried that Saunders couldn't handle them.

Saunders rolled his eyes, "Yeah, trust me I've got this under control. Now all we need is the girl, any idea where she could be?"

Faber sighed, that was the reason he had called in the first place, "Yes I do," he said, "but unfortunately it's not anywhere near you."

"Where is she then?" Saunders asked, confused by Faber's cryptic reply.

"Well our researchers have learned how to track her, and apparently she disappeared again. Around the same time you arrived at the forest." his tone was menacing, implying that it might have been Saunders' fault that the girl disappeared.

Saunders hesitated, "Well, I didn't have anything to do with it, I can tell you that."

"Really?" Faber questioned, "Well according to my researchers the girl disappears every time she is caught off guard and scared. Sort of like every time your heart gives a little jump when something surprises you. And I take it that one of the only things that could have taken her by surprise in the forest is you, Saunders."

Saunders struggled to think of something to say. Thinking back, he realized that it might have been the gunshot that scared the girl. Trying to redirect the conversation, he asked, "Uh well, do you know where she reappeared?"

"Peto, Mexico. It's on the Yucatan Peninsula. I'll send you the details later, but for now, pack up and start heading down to Mexico," he paused for a moment, "Since she's in a city you need to get down there right away before someone else finds her. Bring Dunham and the other guy with you, you don't have time to drop them off, but make sure they don't cause a disturbance."

"Okay," Saunders said, glad he hadn't gotten lectured, "We'll leave as soon as possible." hanging up, he dropped the phone onto the ground and shut his eyes as he leant back into the sleeping bag. He thought he was doing a pretty good job so far, but the hardest part was yet to come.

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><p>Peter was slouched against the tree, asleep, when a rustling sound came from behind the tree he was tied to. It was loud and slowly approaching the clearing, and he woke with a start, his eyes adjusting to the dim moonlight. Looking around slowly, he saw two men huddled around a campfire about 100 feet into the clearing, right next to the river. They looked drunk with their beer bottles, and seemed to be eating something. He thought about calling out to them, to see if he could trick them into letting him go, when he heard a rustling sound again. This time it was closer and louder, and was accompanied by a sort of low grunting.<p>

Slightly alarmed, Peter twisted as much as he could to look behind him. It was too dark to see anything, but he could still hear the faint rustling, and it was getting even closer. Turning back around, Peter leant into the tree and ignored the sound, figuring that it was probably just a raccoon.

A few minutes later, there was a deep grumbling, and it was directly behind him. Jumping slightly in surprise, Peter twisted to look behind the tree and came face to with a grizzly bear on all fours. Frozen in shock and fear, he took in the massive size of the creature. It was four feet tall, just on all four legs, and had a deep brown color to its thick fur. The bear was staring intently at Peter, curious, and was simply sniffing around, but that didn't stop Peter from being close to terrified. Here he was, tied to a tree, helpless, with a giant bear a foot away from him.

Taking a slow, deep breath, he backed away and faced forward, shutting his eyes and willing it to go away. Instead the bear stumbled onward, and came to the edge of the clearing, just to the left of Peter. Bringing its nose to the air, it sniffed, and turned its head to the campfire and two men.

It was then that Peter realized what the bear was doing. It had smelt the food that those two idiots had cooked, and now it wanted some. He couldn't believe it. Those guys were not only going to get themselves killed, but everyone else at the camp as well. Thinking of that reminded him of Olivia, and it made his breath catch. Olivia. She was somewhere in one of those tents, if the bear lost it she might get hurt.

The bear was now continuing towards the two men, completely ignoring Peter. The men were oblivious to what was going on, probably because they were drunk. He considered yelling out to the men, but that would only startle the bear, the only thing he could do was wait nervously.

As it approached the fire, the bear passed dangerously close to the tent Olivia was in and Peter held his breath. It stopped for a moment and took in the scent of the food once more, then continued towards the fire. Letting his breath out, he intently watched.

One of the men, the one holding the food, looked up and saw the bear. Eyes widening, he brought a shaking finger up to point at it and said something to the other man. Turning around, the other man saw the bear and froze.

Despite the danger of the situation, Peter stifled a laugh. These guys were seriously caught by surprise. He only hoped that they would know what to do.

The bear now tilted its head curiously, and stepped past the first man to the one with the food. Grunting, it sniffed the air once more and made a swipe for the food.

The man was still in shock, and when the bear swiped, he brought the hot dogs out of the way and closer to his body. Peter was shocked, what was this guy doing? Did he want to get killed?

The bear became angry after it wasn't given the food. Backing up a few steps, it grunted again and slowly stood up on its hind legs, towering at eight feet. Terrified, both men scurried backwards away from the fire and cowered beside a tent. The man still had the food.

At this point, Peter didn't care about what the bear might do, he just had to knock some sense into these guys, "Hey, don't just sit there! It wants the food! Give it the food!" he yelled, hoping they would get it.

The bear had taken a few steps forward and turned to Peter after hearing his voice. The man with the food heard him, and turning back to the bear, hurriedly threw the stick with hot dogs at it. Being drunk, the man had terrible aim and ended up hitting the bear square in the face.

Startled for a bit, the bear just stood there, taking in the terrified expressions of the two men. After a second, it shook its head and gave a loud roar. It was furious.

Peter tensed, he hadn't seen a bear lose it before, but he did know that it wasn't pretty. Trying to make himself invisible, he watched it carefully, hoping it didn't get anywhere near him or Olivia.

* * *

><p>Olivia was already starting to wake from her stupor, but a sudden loud roar brought her back to earth right away.<p>

Snapping her eyes open, she looked around the tent to find it empty. She was about to pass the loud noise off as her imagination when she heard it again, a loud roar, and this time it was accompanied by a few yells and crashes.

Wondering what the hell was going on, she tried to prop herself up, but her side hurt too much. There were restraints on her legs and wrists, but the ones that had been on her shoulder were now gone. Trying again with all she had, Olivia thrust herself up into a sitting position and stayed for a moment gasping for breath when there was another roar and yell.

Moments later, something crashed into one of the posts that was holding the tent up and it fell over onto the cot Olivia was strapped to, hitting her leg.

Crying out in pain and shock, Olivia was starting to become scared, she had no idea what was going on. Pulling at the restraints again, she tried to get free, but was stopped when a man rushed into the tent and pushed her down onto the cot, "Stay still," he frantically said, as he rolled the cot out of the collapsing tent, "There's a grizzly bear that's going crazy, we'll put you near the edge of the woods so it won't bother you. Hopefully."

Olivia did as the man asked and stayed still, he continued to push her though the clearing and when she looked around her, she was shocked.

There were things scattered everywhere, tables, fabric from the tents, and in the distance she could just make out a hulking, roaring figure smashing everything in its path. Men were running all over the place, panicked, and were trying to find guns. Some were already shooting at the bear, the loud shots echoing across the forest, but it wasn't going down without a fight.

"Is that it?" she asked, trying to hide her fear and stay calm.

"Yeah," the man muttered, as he stopped the cot just inside the edge of the woods, "now don't do anything stupid." At that, he left, rushing to help out the other men.

Taking a deep breath, Olivia brought herself up to a sitting position again and looked around. To her right she saw a slouched form and yelped in surprise when it moved. Looking more closely, she realized that it was Peter. He had dark circles under his eyes and scratches and bruises covering almost every inch of his body, he didn't look too good.

"Olivia?" he whispered, turning to get a better look at her, "Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?"

"I'm fine." she replied, quickly brushing off his concern, "But what about you? What did they do to you?"

Laughing quietly, Peter shook his head, "I'm fine too sweetheart, and I'm not the one who got shot." he was looking pointedly at Olivia as he said this.

Groaning, she turned onto her side as best she could on the cot, "Really Peter, I'm fine, they just patched up my side, that's all."

"Good," he said, "I'm glad you're okay." he looked back at the clearing then, and his eyes widened. Curious, Olivia followed his gaze and saw what surprised him, the men had finally gotten their guns together and were shooting at the bear, but it was heading straight for them, a murderous look on its face.

"Olivia!" he hissed as he slouched against the tree, "Lay back and act dead. I'm serious."

Doing as he said, she quickly shut her eyes and laid back, listening closely. It was getting closer, and by the sounds of it, it was mad. When it reached them, she heard it snort, then brush its snout against her leg.

Biting hard on her lip, she tried her best to stay still, but the bear was now prodding her in the side and it was killing her. She could vaguely hear a man yell out not to shoot, because they might hit her. The bear then gave a hard nudge in her side, and she blacked out, the pain becoming unbearable.

* * *

><p>Saunders had to act fast. The bear was almost on top of Dunham and if anything happened to her, he'd be dead. Faber would make sure of that. "Don't just stand there!" he yelled at his men as he ran towards the bear, "Kill it!"<p>

Following his commands, the men came and began frantically shooting at the bear. They had large guns, and the bear responded immediately. Leaving Olivia's side, it stood on its legs again, approaching the men slowly. This gave one of the men the opportunity to shoot it in the heart, and it stumbled, collapsing in a heap onto the ground.

Running his hand over his forehead, Saunders looked over the destruction of the camp, giving a heavy sigh at what he saw.

All the tents had collapsed, papers and supplies scattered everywhere, and worst of all, over half of their food supply was destroyed. His men scattered and began to clean up, but he knew that they needed to leave soon, there was no point in wasting food now.

Heading over to check on Olivia and Peter, he saw that Olivia was unconscious. Peter was awake, and was observing the wreckage of the camp, not even trying to hide the wide grin on his face.

"Shut up, Bishop." Saunders muttered, seeing that he wanted to say something about the bear.

Peter's grin became wider and he shook his head, "You've got some great luck, don't you?" he said mockingly, ignoring Saunders' grim expression.

"Wipe that grin off your face or I'll do it for you." he said darkly, tugging Olivia's cot out of the forest. Turning back to the clearing, he wheeled the cot over beside the river bank, leaving it so he could help clean up.

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><p>Coming into consciousness, Olivia opened her eyes to more darkness, the moon giving an eerie glow to the trees. Groaning, she felt her side throb and remembered the bear. There was a lot of talking and moving around going on behind her, and when she looked back, she saw people running around, doing their best to clean up. As she moved, she noticed that the strap on her left wrist had ripped at the edge a bit.<p>

Quickly, she checked to see if anyone was watching, then twisted her wrist against the rip. The strap was leather, and it was tough, but after a minute it started to give way. Trying to keep her cool, Olivia continued to push on the strap, and finally, it snapped and her left arm was free.

Checking behind her again, Olivia kept her arm at her side so no one would notice. Then, she laid on her back and thought of a plan to escape. This time, she wouldn't mess up. Hopefully.

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><p><strong>AN: How was it? Please let me know in a review! Thank you! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Okay, I'm SUPER sorry for the really long wait, but I've been incredibly busy, especially with finals in school. :/ This chapter isn't quite as long as the others either, but I wanted the next chapter to start where it is. So, even though I made you wait a while for what to me seems like a really poorly written chapter, enjoy! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 8: Attempt<strong>

Olivia knew it was still dark. She also knew that the darkness would make her escape easier, but then there was the matter of Peter.

She knew she would never just ditch him, but he was all the way across the clearing. Even with it being dark there was no way she would make it all the way across undetected. Giving a sigh, Olivia's eyes fell on the nearby river and she got an idea. She could easily slip into the water, go downstream until she was out of the clearing, then come out into the forest and walk around to where Peter was. It seemed like a good enough plan to her, and she set to put it into motion

She started with the strap on her right wrist. It had a simple clasp, but she was using her left hand and she was extremely uncoordinated with it. "Damn it." she hissed under her breath as the clasp failed to be undone.

After five minutes of struggling, she finally managed to loosen the strap enough so that her wrist could slip through. Rubbing the raw skin on her arm, Olivia took a deep breath and set to work on the straps on her legs.

Being able to use her right hand made it so much easier, and in less than a minute, she was free. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she laid back and acted as though she was still tied down.

All she had to do now was get in the water, get out, and get Peter. It sounded simple enough, but she knew she had to be careful.

Glancing back at the camp for the last time, Olivia saw that everyone was too busy to pay any attention to her. Quietly, she slipped off the cot and landed with a gentle thud on the ground, her side burning in protest.

Slowly, she crawled to the edge of the water, and without testing the temperature, she swiftly dove in. She hardly made a splash, and when she came up for air, she was gasping.

The water was extremely cold. It was coming from the Rocky Mountains, and felt like ice. The only good thing was that it made her side numb. Going back underwater, Olivia swam out towards the middle of the river, pushing off the muddy ground with her legs.

Once she was a few feet in, the ground dropped off unexpectedly, and Olivia fumbled to regain her footing but failed. The swift current caught her and brought her even further from the edge, and she began to panic.

She knew how to swim, but she couldn't move the left side of her body. Every time she tried, a searing, unbearable pain shot up her side.

Trying to kick her way to the surface with only the right side of her body, she brought her right arm up and broke the surface of the water, bringing it down again to pull herself up, but was unsuccessful.

Deciding she would deal with the pain, she tried to kick her left leg, but it didn't respond. It wasn't that she didn't_ want_ to move it, it just didn't, no matter how hard she tried. It had stiffened from the cold and pain, and wasn't working.

The water was now beginning to gain speed, foaming as it surged past rocks. Olivia continued to struggle, but it was pointless. She felt the tug of the current, and moments later, she collided with a large rock, knocking what little breath she had left out of her.

Pushing herself up from the rock into the air, Olivia gasped for breath, trying to keep her head above the rushing water. She tried to stay on the rock, but it was slippery, and before she could take another breath, she was pulled under again.

She was in a very fast and shallow part of the river, but Olivia didn't have any more strength left to pull herself up. Her body relaxed and went limp, and the current continued to toss her around like a ragdoll.

Rushing past another rock, her head clipped the edge of it, and she saw stars, blacking out. The water was beginning to calm again, the moonlight shimmering across the smooth water, but Olivia was nowhere to be seen.

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><p>"Make a pile for everything." Saunders directed his men, "Food in one pile, tents in another."<p>

The cleanup was going pretty smoothly with it being so late at night. Nobody had been killed by the bear, but a few were injured. One man was a doctor, and was currently tending to the wounded in a makeshift tent they had made out of scraps.

Satisfied that they were back on the right track, he decided to check on Olivia. As he walked towards the river, he could make out the cot, and it seemed rather flat to him. It appeared as though nothing was on it, and it was closer to the river than before.

Picking up his pace, he squinted at the cot, and sure enough, there was no one on it.

Cursing under his breath, Saunders sprinted towards the cot, and found how she escaped: one of the straps had ripped. Shoving over the cot in his frustration, it clattered on the rocks and fell into the river, causing the water to splash.

"She probably slipped into the river," he muttered, picking up the cot, "then she probably would have helped..." trailing off, his head snapped up, "Bishop."

Leaving the cot where it was, Saunders ran straight to the tree Peter was at. Peter was still there, and was fully awake, staring at Saunders questioningly.

"Don't give me that look," Saunders nearly shouted, grabbing Peter by the collar of his shirt and lifting him off the ground, "Where is Dunham?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Peter muttered, confused, "She's where you put her...isn't she?" halfway through his sentence, he realized that she most likely escaped. He was thrilled, of course, but it didn't seem like her to just leave him behind. Sure, he would prefer she just left him and went on her own, but he knew Olivia, and she wouldn't leave someone behind, no matter what.

"No," Saunders spat out, tightening his grip on Peter, "she isn't where I left her, and I'm having a hard time believing that she just left you for dead."

Peter had to admit, the guy had a point, but he truly had no idea where she was, "I swear I have no idea where she is, but I _am_ glad she got away." pausing for a moment, he decided to push his luck, "And really? You obviously had no idea who you were dealing with, did you?"

Saunders gave Peter a punch in the jaw as a response, then hissed in his ear as he coughed blood, "You're lucky we have to go to Mexico, otherwise we'd have more time to search for her. But we'll get her, don't worry." slamming Peter back against the tree, he left, determined on finding the girl and Dunham as soon as possible, hopefully without telling Faber.

"Hey!" he called out to his men as he walked towards his destroyed tent, "We have a problem, Dunham escaped, so I need half of you to search for her, she should be somewhere near the river. Find her and bring her here, alive!"

At that, the men scattered, gathering their guns and supplies. Some stayed and continued to clean, while others dispersed into the forest. Saunders had a sinking feeling that he wouldn't find her, but he hoped he would get lucky.

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><p>"Don't you think we should call the police?" Olivia heard a woman's concerned voice say, despite the pounding in her head.<p>

"Honey, were in the middle of a national forest, what police?" A man's voice said, and she felt her head being propped up with something soft.

"Well..." the woman hesitated, "I feel like we should be doing something more than this! She looks really hurt!"

She was more than "really" hurt. There wasn't a part of her body that didn't have cramps or bruises, and her skin tingled from sunburn. Groaning, she rolled over onto her side and gasped from the sharp pain. She quickly returned to her back and opened her eyes, finding the concerned woman hovering over her.

"Paul!" the woman called excitedly, "She's awake, come on over!" Olivia was still in a daze, and was temporarily blinded when the woman moved, allowing the sun to shine directly on her face.

The man came over and sat beside the woman, "Hey, are you okay? We found you on the side of the river and pulled you out, you were in pretty bad shape." pausing, he fixed his statement, "Actually, you still are."

Olivia wasn't sure if she could speak yet, her throat was on fire, but she slowly brought herself to a sitting position. They were in a small clearing, right beside the river bank, and the man and woman both had hiking backpacks.

When she remembered that they were in a forest, her memory immediately flashed back to her. She had been in the river, trying to get Peter, when the water got control of her. Peter, she had been trying to get Peter! And now she was God knows where, and Saunders probably knew she had escaped by now! In her distress, she quickly stood, and immediately regretted the decision.

The trees were spinning all around her, the bright light of the sun making it nearly impossible for her sensitive eyes to adjust, and she fell against a tree, panting. The man and woman got up, quickly coming to steady Olivia, "I'm fine," she said, trying to brush off the woman, "I just need to get to Boston-"

"First you need to rest." the woman interrupted, gently tugging Olivia back to the ground.

"No," Olivia protested, trying to stay up, "You don't understand, I work for the FBI and I _need_ to get back to Boston, someone's life may depend on it."

Skeptical, the woman looked at her husband, and only received a shrug, "If you work for the FBI, what are you doing here?"

Olivia sighed, this wouldn't be fun to explain, "I was kidnapped, along with a colleague of mine. I escaped and tried to help him too, but the river current got me."

The couple only stood there in awe, not believing what she just said, but Olivia had lost her patience, "Are you going to take me or should I go on my own?"

"Uh, well-" the man stuttered, "Fine we'll take you, but we have to leave now, are you sure you're up for it?"

"Yeah," Olivia said as she grabbed her now dry coat from a tree branch, "Let's go."

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><p>"Okay Bishop," Saunders said as he slashed the ties on Peter's wrists, "Here's the deal, were leaving, and we can't find Dunham, but the priority right now is the other girl."<p>

Peter slowly stood and stretched his arms, fully aware of the gun that was pointed at his head, "And me?"

"You're coming with," Saunders said matter-of-factly, "I have a feeling Dunham will be coming back for you, so you should come in handy. Now go!" he commanded, bringing the gun against Peter's head and shoving him into one of three boats in the river.

The boats were fairly small, but they were brimming with supplies. Sitting on the ground, Peter reluctantly allowed his hands to be cuffed around a metal bar and took note of his surroundings.

There were boxes after boxes after boxes, and each was labeled in sharpie. They were stacked high on each other, and Peter wondered if the boats would even move under all this weight. More were still being stacked, and Saunders had left to take care of a few last minute things. Five minutes later, they were cruising down the river, despite having to get around some fairly shallow and rocky water first.

As they were going down the river, Peter thought of ways to escape. When he didn't come up with any ideas at first, he let his mind wander to what Olivia would do. Sadly, he knew Saunders was right, Olivia would come back for him, whether or not it was a good idea. He just hoped he could get away before it came to that.

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><p><strong>AN: Review? Please? I'm not too confident about this chapter, so it would really help me if you told me how I did, and schools out this Friday, so updates should be faster. Thank you!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: So I know it's been a while, but all I can say is I've had terrible writers block and my motivation level has been down too. I'm back into writing this, but I'm busy with soccer so I'm aiming for having another chapter up in about a week or so, if all things go as planned, which, lately, they haven't. Just a few days ago my little bunny, Samuri (whom my account is named after), died of breathing complications four days after his first birthday, so, I'd really appreciate some feedback, cuz the past few weeks haven't gone very well... Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, and as always, enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 9: Back on Track<strong>

The steady beep of the heart monitor prevented Olivia from falling asleep, something she wanted to do very badly. She was now in the hospital and had made it back to Boston with almost no problems.

The kind couple from the forest had led her out, and she had immediately called Broyles, who then had her flown straight to Boston. Despite her protests, she was admitted into the hospital, and was now secretly glad she had been.

The painkillers took away all the physical pain, and she had time to think for once in a long time. No one else was in the room, but Walter had just left, wanting to help track Peter down.

Laying against the pillow and staring at the ceiling, Olivia thought about her and Walter's conversation.

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><p><em>Olivia was looking at the ceiling tiles, making patterns out of the grains in the tiles that didn't exist. She was trying to get her mind off her failure to help Peter, but there was nothing to occupy her.<em>

_The door then opened gently, and Astrid's kind face peeked in through the crack, "Olivia?" she whispered cautiously, not wanting to disturb her. When Olivia brought her gaze on Astrid instead of the ceiling, she continued, "Walter's here. He wants to talk to you, is that okay?"_

_Olivia knew she had to talk to Walter, she owed him after leaving Peter behind, but she knew he was an emotional wreck at the moment. He had been pouring all his energy into finding out where Peter might be, but with little luck. Without Peter to help him, he couldn't concentrate nearly as much as he should have. "Sure," she whispered to Astrid, her voice still coming back to her._

_Nodding, Astrid left the room for a moment to get Walter. Taking a deep sigh, she tried to prepare herself for what was to come. If she was honest with herself, she knew that she didn't want to face Walter quite yet. He may not think that it was her fault that Peter was still gone, but Olivia blamed herself and that was enough. He would most likely ask her questions to try and decipher where Peter might be, but Olivia doubted she had anything new to offer. Hearing the door open again, she turned to find Walter standing there, his hands trembling and face half down._

_"Walter..." Olivia whispered, seeing the distress in his face, "I-I'm sorry, I should have been more careful, I-"_

_"Olivia." Walter quietly interrupted, moving to sit in the chair beside her bed, "I know it's not your fault dear. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself." he paused, clenching his hands to try and stop the trembling, "I-I just wanted to ask you a few things, about Peter and those men..." at this, he trailed off, dropping his head again to stare at the floor._

_"Sure," Olivia said softly, seeing that he couldn't continue, "go ahead."_

_"I can't lose him Olivia," he begged, tears in his eyes, "He means so much to me." Walter seemed to have forgotten about asking the questions._

_"I know Walter," she said gently, "He means a lot to me too."_

_No one said anything after that. Walter never responded to Olivia's words, and she made no move to remind him of his. They both sat there in the quiet, deep in their own thoughts. Walter had his head in his hands, still trembling, and Olivia didn't know what to say. She knew that there wasn't much she could say to ease his mind, but she then thought she knew something, "Walter," she said, waiting for him to look up. When he did, with his hands still shaking, she continued, "I think I might know where Peter is."_

_"Oh where, Olivia?" Walter replied almost excitedly, standing up from the chair._

_"Well I'm guessing that they still want the girl, so probably where ever she is. Do you think you would be able to track her down like you did last time?"_

_"Yes! I'm sure I can figure something out, Astro can help me." Walter muttered to himself, already forgetting his previous distraught behavior. "Thank you Olivia!" he said, already halfway out the door._

_"You're welcome Walter." Olivia whispered in reply, trying to keep her composure. There was no one to hear her._

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><p>Olivia couldn't believe herself as she continued to blankly stare. Her vision had fogged, and she didn't blink, she just sat there, trying to think straight.<p>

Peter was still in danger. She could have, _should _have helped him, and now she was here, in a hospital, with nothing to do. She felt fine, the drugs may have had something to do with it, but besides that, she was healed enough.

Frustrated and impatient, she sat up in the bed and tore off the IV attached to her. Swinging her legs across to hang over the edge of the bed, she sighed.

With one last push, she jumped off the bed, and headed to the bathroom to change. Slowly closing the door behind her, she turned and looked into the mirror, barely able to recognize herself.

Her face was bruised and scratched all over, with the most prominent scratch being from her right eyebrow, across her cheek, and down to her mouth. It was deep, and she had no idea where it could have come from. There were dark circles under her eyes, more so then usual, and Olivia tore her eyes away from the mirror to focus on changing, not wanting to find any other scars.

Opening up the plastic bag she sighed in relief when she found a clean set of workpants and jacket. It had been a terribly long time since she had felt clean.

Slipping on the pants, she groaned when her back nearly gave out in protest. Leaning back against the wall, she gasped and was starting to become frustrated.

It was clear to anybody that she was not ready to leave the hospital, but she couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Not when Peter was out there, and not when Walter and Astrid were working as hard as they could.

Grabbing her blouse, she slipped it on with more ease than the pants, since she didn't have to bend her back nearly as much. Following the blouse came the jacket and soon Olivia was fully dressed and set to go.

Throwing her hair back into a ponytail, she gathered her things and was about to leave when Broyles entered the room. He gave her a look of amusement when she scrambled to put her things back, as though she wasn't just about to leave.

"Uh, Sir." she stuttered, sitting on the edge of the bed, "Did you want something?"

"Well I was about to allow you to assist Dr. Bishop in the lab, but I see you're already a few steps ahead of me." he replied.

"Yes, yes I would love to help out Dr. Bishop, thank you Sir." Olivia said quickly, despite wanting to go out into the field.

"Okay, you will be released from the hospital shortly, stay here until then." he said, looking at her pointedly. He then exited, slowly closing the door behind.

Sighing in exasperation Olivia laid back on the bed and wished she could just go. Even though she knew it probably wouldn't happen, especially since Broyles had just caught her in the process. Now she would just have to help out Walter for a while, but at least it was something.

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><p>"We're almost there!" Peter heard Saunders call from the front of the car. Being in the trunk, the voice sounded distant but he could still hear it.<p>

After traveling down the river for what felt like forever, he had been thrown into the trunk of a small car, and for the rest of the day, they had been driving.

Peter had no idea where the hell they were going, but over the past few hours the temperature and humidity in the trunk had gone up exponentially. He could hardly breathe in the stifling heat, and made a mental note to complain to the car company about the lack of air conditioning in the trunk. _Yeah, 'cause the comfort of abduction victims is really a priority..._ he thought, shifting to face the opposite direction.

The road had gotten a lot bumpier in the past ten or so minutes, and the car had just hit a particularly large bump, sending Peter into the front of the trunk. He hit his head on something, and crashed back to the ground, groaning in pain.

Opening his eyes again, he immediately realized that he could see for the first time. That meant there was a light source. Searching, he found nothing, but when he turned around, he saw a sort of handle, glowing from the light shining on it. Upon closer inspection, Peter realized that there had been duct tape covering it before, but now it was peeling back at the corner.

Wincing in pain, Peter moved towards the handle and gripped the edge of the tape with his teeth. Pulling the tape back and spitting it out beside him, he saw that there were some illustrated directions on it.

They seemed to explain how to get out of the trunk from the inside, and Peter immediately took back his previous comment about the car company not attending to abduction victims. Now the only problem was getting a grip on the handle. His arms and legs were both bound, but he could still try and use his legs.

Twisting around as best he could, Peter had his head pressed against the back of the trunk, and was about to lift the handle with his foot, when he heard a quiet conversation going on between Saunders and another man.

"...even with cortexiphan in her body, are you sure she is the best choice?" Peter heard the unfamiliar man say.

"Of course," Saunders replied, "she is aware of her abilities, so it will work much better."

This made Peter stop. That was why they wanted Olivia? Because she had cortexiphan in her body? This was like Jones all over again, except he was clearly much more involved.

As if reading Peter's mind, Saunders continued, "David would have been thrilled..."

David? As in David Robert Jones? This was getting incredibly complicated for Peter. How did Saunders know him? Apparently they were close enough to be on a first name basis, but how?

Shaking his head, Peter realized that if Olivia hadn't even managed to escape, it wouldn't matter. He still wasn't sure if she had made it. It was extremely unlike her to leave someone behind, so what had gone wrong? Was she okay? Was she even alive?

Shaking his head again, Peter knew he had to concentrate on making it back first, otherwise he'd be worthless. Feeling the car slow to a stop, he heard Saunders say, "Be right back, check on Bishop while I'm gone." Saunders was going to the bathroom, and this was his chance.

Hearing the other man slam the door shut on the car, Peter stilled and readied himself for when he opened the trunk. He heard shuffling just in front of him and he slowly counted to himself, "One... two... _three!_" With a grunt, Peter lifted the handle and kicked the trunk open with all the force he could muster. The trunk swung open, and hit the man square in the face, snapping his head back with a sickening crack. He crumpled to the ground, his neck vertebrae snapped.

The sudden bright light blinded Peter and sent his head spinning. Squeezing his eyes shut he quickly swung his legs out of the trunk, not knowing how long Saunders would take.

As the throbbing subsided, Peter opened his eyes and immediately fell to the ground next to the dead man. Bringing his knees to his chest, he squirmed until he could bring his bound wrists back under his legs and in front of his body. Not wasting any time, he quickly untied his legs and stood, leaving his wrists bound.

Going to the other man, he knelt and sifted through all of his pockets and took what he could find. A wallet, pocket knife, handgun, and most importantly, car keys. Stuffing everything but the keys in his jacket pockets, he stood and rushed to the car, taking in his surroundings for the first time.

They were at a remote looking gas station, and they were the only ones there. The sun was beating down on the dry land, and it looked like it was about noon. Opening the driver's door, Peter sat in the seat and quickly put the keys in the ignition. Looking up, he was about to try and untie his hands with his teeth, but Saunders had just walked out of the station, completely unaware of what had happened. He had a bag of sunflower seeds in hand, and had just opened it when he stopped, noticing his assistant on the ground, dead.

Before he could react, Peter quickly started the car and drove it towards Saunders, hoping to at least knock him out. Saunders caught on however, and dropping the sunflower seeds, made a mad dash back into the gas station before Peter could get him.

He considered getting out of the car and finishing him off, but Saunders most likely had a bigger and better gun than he did, and Peter's hands were tied. Instead, he put the car in reverse, and the dust swirled up into the air as he backed out of the gas station and onto the deserted road. Glancing back at the gas station, he saw Saunders rushing out again, gun in hand, and a look of fury on his face. Taking that as his cue, he stepped on the gas pedal, driving as far and as fast as he could with his hands still tied.

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><p><strong>AN: How was it? Again, sorry about the super long wait, but could you please review and tell me how it was?**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I know it's been a long time, I just lost a lot of motivation :/ it really helps when you guys review, I'm serious. In fact, what got me motivated to finish up this chapter was an email notification telling me someone had asked for alerts! It made me happy :) Only two reviews for the last chapter also brought down my motivation, so I'd really appreciate more, please?**

**Anyway, I'm kinda disappointed in this chapter, it's more of a filler then anything, and not much happens, but it was kind of necessary, it's also a little shorter than usual, but it had to end where it did. Please review! It really will help me get new chapters out a lot faster! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 10: Coordination<strong>

"Damn it. Damn it. _Damn it!_" Saunders shouted as he watched Peter drive off. Sprinting a ways down the road, he stopped and aimed his gun at the tire. Pulling the trigger, he cursed when it only hit the glass, shattering it. He was about to fire off another shot when Peter swerved onto another road, out of sight.

Running back to his friend on the ground, Saunders let loose another curse when he realized he was dead. Standing, he saw the convenience store worker pressed up against the glass, a look of both awe and fear in his face. Muttering to himself, Saunders shoved the gun in his waist band as he approached the store.

The bell on the door clattered to the ground as he kicked it open. Terrified for his life, the worker ducked under the counter. "Get out of there," Saunders commanded, "I'm not gonna hurt you if you just help me out a bit."

Shaking, the man came up from the ground, hands up above his head, "Wha-What you need?" he asked in broken English, eyes darting all over the place as he tried to calm his heavy breathing.

"Your cell phone. And all your cash." Saunders replied coldly, his hand hovering over his gun menacingly.

Frozen in fear for a moment, the man started shaking again, "I-I no have cell phone. But money here!" distractedly, he opened the cash register and put all the money on the counter, silently praying it was enough.

Groaning at the lack of a phone, Saunders silently cursed himself for leaving his in the car, now he wouldn't be able to contact Faber. The more he thought about it however, the more it seemed okay. He was glad for any excuse to postpone telling Faber that he had lost Bishop too.

Nodding at the store clerk, Saunders pocketed all the cash and was turning to leave the store when he realized something else, "Oh yeah," he said, "I'm gonna need your car keys too."

The man's face blanked as Saunders' command fully registered. Stuttering, he brought his hands in a begging position, "Please, sir, I need car!"

Saunders was not in a very sympathetic mood, and whipping his gun out in one smooth motion, he pointed it at the man's head, "Like I said, keys. _Now_."

Shaking some more, the man gave in and dug into his pockets, taking out the keys and placing them on the counter. He had to force his trembling fingers to let go, and he immediately backed away from the counter, hands above his head.

Swiping the keys off the counter, Saunders slowly backed out of the store, keeping the gun trained at the man. When he reached the door, he lowered the gun and gave the man a look that guaranteed he wouldn't be followed. Once outside, he jogged over to the only car in the lot and opened it, hopping inside. Starting the car, he brought his head back to rest against the seat. This job was turning into a nightmare.

After regaining his composure, he backed out of the lot and started down the road Peter had just been on less than ten minutes ago. Turning right onto the road Peter had gone on, he knew that he didn't have much time to lose, but he would still try and find him, he told himself that after an hour or so, he would just go back and find the girl.

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><p>"Oh Olivia!' Walter exclaimed as Olivia entered the lab with a look of determination on her face, "Are you here to help?" Not waiting for a reply, he continued, "Of course you are, what am I saying. You know, Peter wouldn't approve of you leaving the hospital so soon." At that last statement, Walter stopped for a moment. A wave of emotion crossed his face, and he turned back to his work, unable to continue.<p>

Nodding solemnly at Astrid, Olivia turned to Walter, "It's okay Walter, Peter will be fine." She only wished that what she was saying would turn out to be true.

Shaking his head, Walter started to ramble, "I'm sure he will be, I just need to finish this... It would be so much easier with Peter's help... Oh dear..."

"Walter, it'll be fine," Astrid said soothingly, "Now what do you need?"

Stopping in his tracks, Walter looked up, a distraught look on his face, "I-I seemed to have forgotten..." Pausing for a moment, he spoke up when he remembered, "Ah yes!" he shouted, causing both Olivia and Astrid to jump, " Astro, Agent Dunham told me to tell you to search for any more radiation signatures." Satisfied that he had remembered, Walter turned back to his previous work, mumbling to himself.

"Walter..." Olivia groaned, "I told you that a day ago! What have you been doing his whole time?"

"I've been working!" Walter defended, "Trying to understand _why_ this girl is jumping around the face of the globe! If we can ascertain _why_, it will make finding her easier!"

"Okay Walter..." Olivia gave in, a headache starting to come on. Turning to Astrid, she asked, "You find anything yet?"

Astrid was focused on the computer screen, her brows knit in concentration, "Uh, yeah..." she mumbled, writing something down on a notepad, "The radiation signature shows up again in Peto, Mexico. It's a city in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula." Picking up the notepad again, she placed it in front of Olivia, "These are the exact coordinates, but they probably won't matter since the city is so small."

Nodding, Olivia ripped the paper from the notepad and stuffed it in her pocket, "Thank you, Astrid."

"No problem." Astrid replied, still fixated on the computer. She was looking for any odd reports of anything in that area of Mexico. So far, she had nothing.

"Walter?' Olivia asked, watching the man write viciously on a piece of paper, "I'm going to go and see if we can find Peter or the girl in Mexico, you just keep working on this, okay?" She waited for a reply, but Walter was too engrossed in what he was doing to hear her. Deciding to let it slide, she just headed towards the door, ready to ask Broyles for permission to head down to Mexico. She wasn't particularly thrilled that the girl had ended up out of the country, international cases always got so much more complicated than they had to be, but she was glad that they at least found her. Now she could only hope that Peter and Saunders would be there as well.

"Astrid?" Olivia called, just as she was about to leave the lab. The FBI agent looked up in response, "Call me if either you or Walter come up with anything, okay?"

"Sure thing." Astrid replied, leaving the computer to check on what Walter was up to. He had now left the paper and was messing around with a variety of chemicals.

Leaving the lab, Olivia took out the paper with the coordinates. She could only hope that they would lead her to the girl, as well as Peter.

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><p>Peter had his head resting against the wheel, eyes shut, trying to think with the massive headache he had. The throbbing had only gotten worse with time, much to his chagrin, but he still had to keep moving.<p>

He had gone down a remote road for a few miles, and had ended up at an even more remote town. He had parked the car behind a large shop, and was now trying to get his bearings.

Lifting his head from the wheel, Peter grabbed at the rope around his wrists with his teeth, pulling the hardest he could. After a bit of tugging, the knot started to loosen, and within a few more pulls, his hands were free.

Rubbing his wrists gingerly, Peter noticed a cell phone on the floor below the passenger seat. Grabbing it, he realized that it had been left behind by Saunders. "Looks like my lucks turned around..." Peter muttered to himself, grinning, as he dialed Olivia's number, praying that she was okay and would pick up.

After a few rings, she finally answered, allowing Peter to let out a sigh of relief, "Dunham."

"Olivia!" he said, thrilled that she was okay, "You're okay! Where are you?"

"Peter?" she asked incredulously, not believing her ears, "Peter! I'm so sorry! I tried to help you but I got caught by the river current! Are you okay? What happened to-"

"Olivia!" Peter interrupted, stifling a laugh, he had never seen her this distressed before, "Calm down, I'm fine, I managed to get away from Saunders, but I'm pretty sure he's looking for me. I think I'm in Mexico, but exactly where, I have no idea."

"That makes sense..." Olivia said to herself, only confusing Peter.

"What makes sense?"

"Well the girl," she answered, "we tracked her down again, this time in Peto, Mexico, it's in the Yucatan Peninsula. You said that Saunders might still be after you?"

"Yeah, but he has no need for me so he'll probably give up soon, you think he's gonna head over to Peto?"

"I do, in fact, I just got Broyles' permission to go down there to find Brianna." Olivia replied tersely, knowing what Peter's reply would be.

Peter couldn't believe his ears, Olivia had just barely recovered from a kidnapping and near-drowning, and now she wanted to come down to Mexico to face the very guy who took her? "Olivia," he said in a low voice, "You'd better be kidding."

"You know me well enough to know that I'm not, Peter." Olivia said stubbornly.

"Olivia," Peter almost growled, "Saunders is after you, and you just got out of the hospital, and now you want to come down here? What the hell are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," Olivia said sharply, "That I need to do my job and find Brianna before Saunders does, and also get you the hell out of Mexico." Not wanting to argue with him any further, she changed the subject, "Where do you want me to find you?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, Peter let out a big sigh. He knew that Olivia would never listen to him, no matter what he said, so he just let it go, "Well, how about Peto? I can start looking for the girl before you get here."

"Peter, Saunders is going to be looking for her too, what if he finds you?" Olivia asked, worried.

Well that was a little hypocritical of her. "Look, your coming down here," he said in an exasperated tone, "so I'm going to look for the girl whether you like it or not, just call me on this number when you get down here," realizing that he had been parked in this spot for a while, he quickly continued, "Look, I gotta go, bye." Snapping the phone shut, he put it in his pocket as he cautiously exited the car. He had every intention of finding out where Peto was, and going there to find the girl before Saunders.

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><p>Listening to the monotonous buzz on the other end of the phone, Olivia didn't know what to think. On one hand, Peter was alive and well. On the other, he was out looking for the girl, most likely about to get in trouble again in the process.<p>

She was glad he was okay, but he had a knack for getting himself into trouble.

Olivia now had a reason to leave earlier than initially planned, for which she was glad for. Now all she needed to do was confirm a few last-minute things with Astrid and Walter.

Making a U-turn, she headed back to the lab, ignoring the slew of car horns behind her.

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><p>"Peto. Donde esta Peto?" Peter asked the man in front of him, who seemed to be more intrigued by the broken watch Peter was wearing than the words he was saying, "<em>Perdon?<em>"

The man averted his gaze back up to Peter, "Peto?"

"Si."

"Peto esta a pocos kilometros por la carretera." The man replied in a bored tone, then, he held up a delicately painted figurine, "Quieres?"

Exasperated, Peter turned from the market stall after muttering a quick, "No, gracias." He had to get to Peto soon, and decided the best way to do it would be by car.

Entering the car, Peter immediately started it up and turned onto the main road, heading in the direction the man told him to, he just hoped that the girl would still be there.

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><p><strong>AN: How was it? Please please please review, I've been slowly losing motivation for this story, it will help a lot if I know if you like it or not...**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: So after this chapter, I have two different ways this story could go. I have a longer, more elaborate version, or a shorter, quick solve version. I'd like it if you told me which one you'd like, if I don't get a decent amount of responses, I'm going to do the shorter version, so if you want the longer one, speak up! Tell me in a review or a pm, it doesn't matter, thanks! It's been a while, but here you go! Keep up the reviews and enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 11: Hide and Seek<strong>

Words couldn't describe how nervous Faber was as he paced back and forth in his confined office.

He had tried multiple times to contact Saunders, heck, _anybody_, that was in Mexico, and not a single person had responded.

Of course, there were several different reasons for which Saunders wouldn't call him back, but the one that Faber had on his mind was that something had gone terribly wrong.

Again.

He was now debating whether or not to head down to Mexico himself, as it seemed that all people he assigned to do so were just too incompetent for the job.

He had already killed one of his scientists, paranoid that they were leaking information, and now he was wary of his guards. Not even Faber could deny that the current situation he was in was driving him near insanity. He was in too deep. The FBI was never supposed to get involved. The other man was never supposed to be taken along with the Special Agent. She was never supposed to escape, and now, he feared that the other man had escaped as well.

There weren't many other practical explanations, and Faber found it easier to expect the worst, so that when it came, it wouldn't come across as too much of a shock and he wouldn't think irrationally.

Sinking into his large chair, Faber allows his head to roll back and sighs. Saying that things weren't going as planned would now be an understatement.

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><p>Disobeying orders from her superior wasn't initially part of Olivia's plan, but there was <em>no<em> way in hell that she would ever wait an extra day, already in Mexico, for Broyles to send another agent to accompany her. Especially after the whole fiasco with Saunders.

She had arrived in Mexico City without a problem, and had been expected to communicate with Mexican officials and explain a few things until another agent came to help.

She _had _briefed the officials, though maybe not as thoroughly as she should have, but immediately after, she had hopped on another plane to take her closer to the Yucatan Peninsula.

She was currently in a taxi, driving down a road that had seen better days. According to the driver, they were a mere ten minutes away from Peto.

Ten minutes felt like ten hours as she stared out the window, watching signs pass by. The cab driver, who had introduced himself as Henry, was a talkative guy and had explained that he was from the U.S., but had come down to Mexico to be closer to his wife's family. He seemed nice enough, and had made the three hour drive go by faster than it would have, but Olivia couldn't pay much attention to what he was saying as she was too stressed out.

"Hey." Henry said abruptly, breaking her out of her daze, looking at her through the rearview mirror, "You okay? You seem to have something on your mind."

Olivia shook her head slightly, a weary smile on her face, "You could say that. I just have a lot to think about right now I guess."

"Does it have to do with that, that weird FBI job you were telling me about?" he gestured with his hand to emphasize the "weird".

Olivia smiled slightly, "Yeah, it does. Almost everything I do now has to do with it."

"Well in that case," he said, the cab entering the outskirts of a small town, "I suppose it's a good thing we're here. Anywhere specific you wanted me to drop you off?"

Olivia hadn't really thought about this next part of her plan. She knew the girl appeared here, but there was no telling where she would be now, and Peter had told her to call him. "How about you just drive around the town for a while? I have to make a call."

"Sounds fine to me." Henry replied, turning onto a neighborhood road.

* * *

><p>Peter had been walking around endlessly trying to find out where Brianna was. He had asked shopkeepers, residents, pedestrians, and even school kids if they had heard about a strange girl in the town, but he hadn't gotten a straight answer. He was pretty sure that people were now suspicious of <em>him<em>. That was when he decided to head back to where he had hidden the car, hoping to cover more ground with it.

Finally reaching the empty lot where the car was, Peter started to toss the tarp he had placed on the car off. Having sat for the better part of two hours in the sun, it was extremely hot, and he couldn't imagine how hot it would be inside the car. He was about to open all the doors to let the heat out when the phone he had rang.

A contact under the name of "Faber" had called multiple times over the course of the past day. Peter had ignored all those calls, not wanting to let the person, who clearly had something to do with the girl, know that Saunders didn't have his phone, but he really wanted to get some info on the guy.

He took out the phone, and was ready to respond to this Faber guy, only to find it was Olivia's number on the other end. Without hesitation he answered, "Hey, you here yet?"

"Yeah, I'm in a cab, and I'm pretty sure it's the first one the townspeople have seen in a while, I'm getting a lot of looks." she paused, "Anyway, I'm hard to miss."

"Okay, well I'm in an empty lot across the street from the school, think you can meet me here?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second, just don't do anything stupid within that second." Olivia replied, exasperated.

"Will do," Peter said sardonically, hanging up.

* * *

><p>Saunders was certain at this point that Faber was at least aware that something had gone wrong, and he was now beginning to feel grateful that he had lost his phone along with everything else. Talking to Faber wouldn't help things in the least.<p>

He was just reaching Peto, and was ready to collapse from exhaustion, but there was no way he could rest with everything falling apart.

He had contacted the rest of his team that was supposed to wait at the Mexican border to come down, and they would be here sometime today. For now he was on his own.

The narrow streets were fairly empty as he wound through them, not sure what he was looking for. Bishop might be here searching too, and with Bishop, came Dunham. He still didn't have a clue as to what happened to her, but his bets were on that she was still alive.

Saunders was approaching a local school on his right, when movement caught his eye to the left. Looking closely, he saw a man opening the doors to what could only be his car. "Bingo." he muttered to himself, parking the car at the side of the road.

Getting out of the car, he checked to see that he still had his gun in its holster. Satisfied, he crept up along the side of the building, and saw that he was right, just a hundred feet around the corner of the building Bishop was rifling through a duffle bag full of papers. There wouldn't be a better time to catch him off guard, Saunders knew there wasn't a weapon in the bag.

Taking a few steps from his hiding spot, Saunders raised his gun and aimed it at Peters head, "Game over, Bishop, put your hands on your head." he sneered.

Slowly, Peter rose from the ground, and brought his hands to his head with a grin on his face, "I've gotta hand it to you, I wasn't expecting you right then."

Ignoring Peters quip, Saunders continued, "Step away from the bag." he thundered.

Complying, Peter took a few slow steps in Saunders' direction, hoping for Olivia to come around any moment now, a cocky grin still plastered across his face, "So how you been? Can't say I'm surprised you managed to steal a car, though it won't help once you're in jail."

"Enough with the formal bull shit!" Saunders snapped, sick of Peters attitude, "Now get down on the ground before I kill you."

Remembering what Olivia said earlier about not doing anything stupid, Peter decided it was a good idea not to piss him off, "Yeah, yeah, getting down." he said casually, flattening himself on the ground, the rough gravel digging into his already bruised face.

Calming slightly when Peter was on the ground, he took a few steps toward him, gun still trained on his head, "Now don't-"

"...move or else I'll blow your brains out." Olivia finished for him, stepping out from behind the building, gun aimed at Saunders, "Freeze." she elaborated.

Saunders immediately froze, eyes closing in frustration, but he still kept the gun on Peter. Of course the worst possible thing would happen when he needed it least.

"Put the gun down. Now." Olivia continued, stepping closer to Saunders. There wasn't the slightest hint of hesitation in her voice.

Saunders couldn't let this happen. Couldn't. He was only a few steps from Peter, he might make it to him before Dunham could shoot him...

"Whatever you're thinking, I'll kill you before you do it, so put the gun down." Olivia said, her tone icy.

She was right, he wouldn't make it in time, but that didn't mean he would go down easy. He turned to face her, noticing a taxi in the street with the driver gawking at the situation unfolding before his eyes.

Slowly, he lowered the gun to the ground, all the while not breaking eye contact with Olivia. Rising to a standing position, he raised his hands above his head. He had yet to say a word.

"Now step away from Bishop," she commanded again. As Saunders stepped away from Peter, she finally acknowledged him, "Peter, stay down."

"Yes ma'am." Peter muttered sarcastically, lifting his head slightly to watch what was happening, the glare of the sun blinding him.

Olivia ignored Peter and turned to Saunders, who was now a good distance from Peter, "Okay, now slowly get down on the ground."

It was then that Saunders remembered that the rest of his team would come to meet him in Peto any day now, and with such a small town, they would most likely run into them. With the current situation, that was his best bet. With this new idea in his head, Saunders lowered himself to the ground.

The second his head touched the ground, Olivia approached him, taking out her handcuffs. Peter took the liberty to stand up and dust himself off as she cuffed Saunders' hands behind his back.

"You had pretty good timing there, Dunham." Peter said jokingly, watching Olivia get Saunders up from the ground and into the back seat of the car. "You might want to wait before you leave him in there, it's like an oven in there."

"Good." she replied, slamming all four of the doors shut on him, "You have the keys?"

Amused, Peter couldn't say he minded Saunders baking in the car, so he just let it be, "Yep, you okay?" he asked, noticing her impatience.

"Fine, besides I should be asking you that. Did Saunders do anything to you?" she said, deflecting his question.

Peter decided to let it slide this time, "Nope, I'm all good, but I'd like to point out that we aren't alone." he pointed at the taxi in the road that hadn't moved since it arrived.

All this time and Olivia hadn't even noticed that Henry was still there, she hadn't even paid him yet. Running her hand through her hair, she walked over to the drivers' side, taking out her wallet. "Hey Henry, sorry about that, how much do I owe you?" she grinned, noticing his expression. He probably didn't know what to think about the situation.

"Uh, no, it's fine you don't have to pay, you did a good job out there. Besides, my shifts over and I only live fifteen minutes from here." he paused for a moment, debating over what he was about to say next, "You need a ride somewhere else or any help?"

"No, you've done enough Henry, thanks so much." Olivia replied gratefully. Then, taking out two hundred dollars, she handed it to him, "Here, you don't have a choice, so take it."

Taking the money, Henry smiled and shook his head, "Thanks, good luck Olivia." he started the cab as she backed away, then with a last look back, drove away down the road.

Peter was kneeling on the ground sifting through a duffel bag full of papers. Walking back, Olivia joined him on the ground, "Did you lock the car?"

"Yeah..." Peter said absently, intently reading a particular sheet of paper. Concern and darkness clouded over his eyes as he read, and the more he read, the grimmer his expression got. Finally he tossed it aside and tore through the rest of the bag looking for another paper.

Concerned, Olivia picked up the discarded paper, "What is it?" she asked, scanning her eyes across the words, looking for anything that would merit Peters reaction. She found it.

There, in the middle of the paper, were the words "Experimental Expectations: Olivia Dunham".

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So what do you think? Review please! If you didn't read what I wrote in my first authors note, please do so, because it directly pertains to you! Incase your to lazy ;), I'll repeat myself, I have two ways to finish this story, a long way and a short way. Obviously the long way will be more elaborate, but I need you to tell me either in a review or pm which one you'd want. If I don't get enough replies, I'm going to do the short version, so you've been warned! Thanks for reading! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: So it's been a while. A LONG while. And I don't have any legitimate excuses but I have decided to go the long way on this one. Here's the next chapter, enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 12: Right On Course<strong>

"So he _has _contacted you?" Faber questioned the man on the other end of the phone. After an entire day with no word from anyone, someone had finally called him back.

"Uh, yeah. He was really brief, told us to head down and help out. He didn't say why." The man replied, uncertainty tainting his voice.

Of course. Saunders was always vague when he was in trouble, even though it never did him any good. "Well in that case, get the hell down there and help out, and remember what I said, keep the girl and agent alive. Do _not_ under any circumstances bring the man, you guys can hardly handle two women as it is." Not waiting for a response, Faber snapped his phone shut and headed to his office. Now that things were seemingly cooling down, he had work to do.

* * *

><p>"Peter, you've looked through all the papers at least twice! There isn't any more information on me!" Olivia fumed, watching as he tore through the bag another time.<p>

"Fine." Peter said in a huff, shoving the papers back in the bag, except for the one with Olivia's name on it, "Let's go. We need to find that girl and get out of here." He was clearly worried about the implications of the paper they had found, but he knew Olivia would just blatantly deny any suggestion for caution. He'd be better off leaving the discussion for later.

"Where do we start looking?"

"Well think about it," Peter said thoughtfully, "what would you do if you found yourself in a city with people speaking a language you didn't know?"

"I'd find a phone." Olivia replied bluntly, not sure where he was going.

"Yes, exactly, and not many people in a small town like this would have much purpose to make a call to the U.S., which I'm assuming is the first place she would call."

"Okay." Olivia nodded, catching on, "I'll call Astrid and tell her to see if any calls were made to the U.S. in this area." walking away, she added over her shoulder, "Check on Saunders."

Saunders. Peter had very nearly forgotten about that guy. Letting his previous anger come back, he decided it was time to ask him about what was on the paper. Picking it up off the ground, Peter purposefully walked to the car, opening the door with force. Saunders had his head on the opposite window, sweat dripping down his face.

Not wasting any time, Peter reached into the car and grabbed Saunders by the collar of his shirt, tossing him out of the car, face first into the dirt. Saunders grunted as he made impact with the ground, spitting out dirt as he turned over, only to be met by Peters fist.

_Fuck, _he thought, his vision blurred, and before he could recover, Peter picked him up off the ground again, only to knee him in the gut. All the breath rushed out of his chest, and he was left wheezing on the ground as a mildly-satisfied Peter stood above him.

"You'd get more, but I'm going to stay on Agent Dunham's good side." Peter seethed, watching a frustrated Olivia walk back over to tell him off. "But next time you and me are alone, count on being in a world of hurt."

Saunders couldn't help but flinch. The blood dripping from his own nose was evidence enough that Peter was _not_ kidding. If it wasn't for Agent Dunham, he knew he'd be dead already.

"What the hell Peter?" Olivia accused as she approached him.

Peter shrugged, "Couldn't help myself."

_Bullshit. _"You know just as well as I do that you can't punch a suspect." she stressed.

"Just say it was in self-defense." he teased. Turning to Saunders, his grin left his face.

"Hey now!" Saunders almost whined, sliding away from Peter and cutting up his hands on the rocks in the process, "You heard her! No more, no more!"

"I just have a few questions, that's all," Peter assured him menacingly, holding up the paper he had been holding in Saunders' face. "This look familiar?"

It did. It looked _very_ familiar. "No." Saunders replied, but it was a second too late. Peter smirked, clearly not believing him, and next thing he knew, his back was pressed up against the car, Peter an inch from his face.

"What were you going to do to her?" he growled, venom entering his voice.

This time even Agent Dunham wouldn't save him. She stood directly behind Bishop, fully expecting an answer from Saunders. He would have to give one. "Fine," he relented, "We wanted to check the cortexiphan levels in her blood." There. That was a safe answer, he knew that Peter had heard him mention cortexiphan, there was no use in trying to hide it. He hadn't given anything away.

"Who's 'we'?" Peter pressed, giving him even less room to breathe.

Or so he had thought.

Cursing himself internally, his mind raced to every possible answer that they might believe. In the three seconds that Peter gave him before slamming against the car again, he got nothing. They weren't stupid, they wouldn't believe anything but the truth.

But he wouldn't give it to them.

* * *

><p>"Gracias." Brianna said quietly, accepting the bowl of soup that the woman handed her.<p>

"De nada." She replied with a warm smile, leaving the kitchen to attend to something else.

Brianna had spent a while walking around in a daze, unsure of what to do, and eventually ended up at this woman's door. Her husband was away at work, and she had three little boys running around like rabid dogs, but they had a phone. She had been allowed to use it, and tried calling her boyfriend, but he hadn't picked up.

Now she was just waiting and hoping that he would call back. The family had a limited number of minutes for out-of-country calls, and she didn't want to waste them. They had already done so much.

A screaming and giggling little boy ran into the kitchen, breaking her out of her reverie. Right on his tail came the other two boys, intent on catching him. The eldest boy, wielding a toy gun, shot it at the other boy, but hit Brianna instead, making her flinch.

She quickly recovered, smiling at the boy when he quickly apologized, but her smile disappeared when the edges of her vision began to fade to black.

It was happening again.

In a panic, she stood, the chair crashing to the ground in the process. She didn't have time, her head was already swimming with dizziness. "No, no, please..." she begged, even though she knew by now that it was useless.

Tears were forming in her eyes as she crouched to the ground, as though keeping her grip on something would root her in place. The little boy that had hit her screamed and ran from the room, calling for his mom. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting the tears stream down her face as she willed it all to end.

* * *

><p>"How could she be gone <em>again<em>?" Peter groaned, following Olivia out of the local house they had just visited. She was on the phone talking to Astrid, and ignored his complaints.

The woman inside the house had seemed flustered when explaining the situation. She had described a girl that fit the description of Brianna that had came to her door seeking a phone. The woman had let her use their phone and had even given her something to eat, but when she left the room, one of her sons had come screaming. When she had checked the kitchen, Brianna was gone.

Something had clearly scared her, and when looking around the kitchen, Peter had found a Nerf gun on the floor, its' bullets scattered. That was most likely it, but now it was just a matter of finding out where she went. As Olivia closed the phone, Peter got in the passenger side of the car, Olivia entering on the other side. Not starting the car, she sighed, leaning deeply back into the seat.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked, concern filling his voice. "Didn't Astrid get a place?"

Olivia sighed again, "It's gonna be a while until she tracks down the spot, and Broyles still needs to organize our transportation back to Boston. We have some time to kill."

"Well I'm starving, how 'bout we grab something to eat?"

"Actually," Olivia said with a grin, "I was thinking the same thing, I saw this nice-looking restaurant on the main street."

Before Peter could agree, a cough brought their attention to the back seat, "And me?" Saunders questioned with a sense of superiority, "I'm assuming you're not going to bring a criminal into a local restaurant with you? I could go in the trunk..."

It was moments like these that made Peter regret not punching the guys face in on itself. He knew how to get to them, and did so in the best way possible. The trunk wasn't an option, considering that that was exactly how Peter escaped before. And Saunders knew that.

"You're making it tempting with that attitude." Olivia snapped, losing her patience with the man.

"No," Peter said, "That's how I escaped, there's a latch on the inside of the trunk to get out. I can get the food, you can just stay in here and watch him."

Olivia nodded, starting the car "Sounds fine to me."

* * *

><p>"That's it, right there?" Faber asked, pointing at a blinking dot on the computer monitor.<p>

"Yep," the technician replied, "but it hasn't been moving, which means they've most likely tossed the phone."

"Okay, that's fine." Faber said, taking out his own phone to make a call, "At least I have a general area."

Faber turned to leave the room as he held the phone to his ear.

"Any news?" the man on the other end asked, seeing that it was his boss.

"Yeah, I have a location of Saunders and most likely the Agent as well, how far are you from Peto?"

"Uh," the man speculated, "I'd say we'll get there around nightfall."

"Okay," Faber said, his voice grim, "I'll tell you where they are when you get there."

Hanging up, Faber left the tech room and headed towards the lab. He was rather proud of what he had accomplished so far. A fully functioning lab, a tech room, a small cluster of private "offices" for his higher-ups, and of course, the furniture shipping cover he had created, which took up the majority of the warehouse.

"Where are we?" he asked, entering the lab with returning confidence.

The lead scientist looked up from his work, "We're done synthesizing everything, nothing more can be done until we have the test subjects." he stated flatly.

"Nothing more? At all?" Faber questioned skeptically.

"Nothing."

Nodding to himself, he turned to exit the lab, "Okay, just make sure everything is correctly labeled this time around." he said pointedly to the man, "you've seen me mad, you don't want to see me pissed."

With that, he left the room, leaving a small framed woman near the right of the room terrified for her life and wondering what exactly she had gotten herself roped into.

* * *

><p>"And here we are," Peter said with a grin as he entered the car, wielding two delicious smelling bags of food, "best traditional food in all of Mexico."<p>

Olivia smiled, "Really? And you know this through experience?"

"Well, no, but that's what the lady said when she handed me the bags, and who am I to question it?"

Taking one of the bags from Peter, Olivia was beginning to realize just how hungry she was, and upon opening the bag, she sighed with content when the scents hit her nose.

Peter laughed, "And you claimed to have not been very hungry?"

"What, I can't enjoy the scent of real food without being starving?" Olivia responded, a dubious expression on her face.

"Fine," Peter relented, opening up his own bag, "but I still think you were downplaying just how hungry you were."

Olivia rolled her eyes in response, readjusting in her seat to have a better view of Saunders, who, as far as she could tell, wasn't paying any attention to their banter and had his eyes closed.

She turned back to Peter, "We have to give him something to eat."

Stopping mid-chew, he looked at her with mock disbelief, "I'm sure the guy can live."

"Oh I am too, but that doesn't mean I won't get in trouble if we don't feed him."

Crumpling up the wrapper of his finished taco, he tossed it aside. He then went digging around in his bag of food and eventually turned up with a roll of bread, "This will do, won't it?" he said, holding it up for Olivia's inspection.

Upon seeing her nod, Peter turned to Saunders and tossed the bread into his face. Saunders shook awake as the bread bounced off his body to the floor.

"That's your meal. Have a blast." Peter said coldly, turning back to the bag of food for his own meal as Olivia's phone rang and she answered.

Saunders blankly stared at the roll on the floor, his stomach growling, "And how exactly am I supposed to eat it?" he pulled at his handcuffs for emphasis.

Groaning in exasperation Peter grabbed the bread and held it in front of Saunders' head. Rolling his eyes, Saunders went ahead and grabbed the roll with his mouth and began to chew, trying to keep the bread in his mouth.

Smirking slightly, Peter faced Olivia, who had just gotten off the phone, "When was I relegated to hand-feeding criminals?"

Smiling, Olivia shrugged, "I don't know, but that was Broyles, we'll need to stay here for the night. He said to turn Saunders into the local police station while we stay at an inn or something. It should be dark soon anyway."

"Great, I'm exhausted," Peter said, stretching out his arms in front of him, "Let's get going."

* * *

><p>Faber was silently working at his desk when his phone rang. Without even checking caller id, he answered, "Hello?"<p>

"Sir," a man said, "we are a half hour away from Peto. What do you want us to do?"

Faber quickly checked the time before answering, it was nearly ten, "Okay," he said, leaning back in his chair, "the FBI agent and a man are holding Saunders. Drive around until you find them, which won't take long since it's a small town. When you find them, get Saunders and the agent, but leave the man, we don't need him. Just make sure he doesn't get in the way. When you get them call me again, I'll tell you more then."

"Sounds good, anything else?" the man said with a yawn.

"Don't mess up." Faber said bluntly, snapping the phone shut.

* * *

><p>"Sleep! At last!" Peter exclaimed tiredly as he and Olivia walked up to the rooms they had checked out, "You're going to have to shoot your gun tomorrow to wake me up, I can assure you of that."<p>

"That's okay," Olivia said, stopping at the door to her room, "I'm just glad I don't have to deal with Saunders."

"Same," Peter replied with a smile, stopping at the next door over, "Well, goodnight Olivia, see you in the morning."

"You too," Olivia said, just as she entered her room and shut the door. Tossing her bag on the floor, Olivia sat down on the bed and stared at the blank screen of the TV for a while.

She had told herself she wasn't terribly bothered by Saunders' apparent interest in her, but she was. She didn't want Peter thinking she needed any help, but now that she was alone, she needed answers. It was then that she made her decision to get them.

Quickly, Olivia hopped in the shower for a rinse. Less than ten minutes later, she was out again and had changed into fresh work clothes. Quietly, she holstered her gun and put her shoes on, checking the clock as she did so. It was a quarter past ten. Peter was long asleep by now.

Standing up, Olivia made her way to the door and quietly opened it. Without a look back, she shut it and confidently made her way to the police station.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope you don't hate me TOO much for not posting in a while, but it's understandable if you do, but please review! They seriously do motivate me! In fact, the only reason I got motivated to finish this chapter was because someone recently favorited and followed this story! :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I don't even know how long it's been. Motivation is low, I'm not allowing myself to start anything else until this is finished, so there's that I guess :/. Reviews and/or favorites help IMMENSELY, yet again, the reason I finished this chapter was because someone favorited and followed my story :) so thanks to that person and thanks to everyone else who reviewed, enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 13: Back To The Beginning<strong>

"I'm sick of the lies," Olivia said, shoving Saunders onto a bench in front of the Peto police station, "why did you want me and what does Cortexiphan have to do with it?"

Saunders was silent as he maintained a straight face, staring at the officer supervising the conversation. Olivia grew even more frustrated.

"If you could experiment on Brianna Orlbreck, why am I that important?"

She wasn't getting anything. Even Olivia knew that she would never get him to talk right now, but she couldn't help herself from trying. Sighing, she ran her fingers threw her still wet hair.

"You're going to jail, so I don't see why you're so stubborn on ignoring me." she then prompted, hoping to get a reaction out of him.

Again, nothing.

In fact, he didn't even seem to have heard her. His gaze was fixed on something behind her. Apprehensive, she turned around and saw the officer shift uncomfortably. Something was clearly up.

Slowly coming to a stand, Olivia placed her hand on her gun reassuringly, "What's going on? What are you looking-"

Suddenly, the officer collapsed to the ground, a bullet hole in his head. Panic set in as she whipped out her gun, turning as she searched for the source of the bullet. Facing the retaining wall, she found what she expected and more.

Two men with heavily accessorized pistols had their guns aimed at her. Her own gun already raised, Olivia was beginning to think of an escape when she heard the click of a gun behind her.

"Put the gun down. Now." a gruff, unfamiliar voice commanded.

She slowly knelt to put the gun to the ground, her mind racing to find an out. She hadn't told anyone that she was going here, Peter thought she was still at the hotel.

The moment her gun touched the ground, the man behind her swung the heel of his gun at her.

A searing pain ran through her head and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

><p>Peter couldn't sleep. It wasn't surprising, but after turning off the TV and tossing and turning for half an hour in the dreadful heat, he was annoyed.<p>

Olivia hadn't looked very tired either, but she had said she was, meaning she wanted to be left alone.

But she always wanted to be left alone. Whenever there was something bothering her, she went into solitude. Peter usually left her alone when she wanted it, but sometimes he convinced himself to push past the wall she always put up.

He supposed this could be one of those times, seeing as he couldn't sleep.

Throwing on his clothes, he headed out his door to see what Olivia was up to. Reaching her door, he sighed before he gently knocked on her door, hoping for a response.

Not getting anything, he knocked again, this time a little louder.

When nothing happened, Peter figured she actually _was_ asleep and quietly headed back to his room, this time, falling asleep in ten minutes.

* * *

><p>"You were supposed to call Faber when we got you guys."<p>

Nodding, Saunders grabbed the phone he was offered and dialed.

"Please tell me this is Saunders." Faber said into the phone immediately, not wasting his time with formalities.

"Yeah, it's me, we got Dunham too. You said you would tell us what to do next?"

"Yes, I was hoping you could find the girl too," Faber paused, sighing, "but it's too risky to stay there any longer, just come back to base."

"Sounds good to me, we should be there by tomorrow night." Saunders replied, relieved that he was done.

"I'll expect you."

Returning the phone to the man driving, Saunders smiled for the first time in a very long time.

"Guys, were heading home."

* * *

><p>Peter woke to sunlight streaming in through the dingy curtains. Sitting up, he ran his hands over his face and was surprised to see that it was half past ten, much too late to be waking up, especially since Olivia loved to get him up at the most ungodly hours of the day.<p>

He figured Broyles must not have called her back yet.

Slowly getting up, he headed for the shower, eager to cool down from the heat of the hotel room.

Twenty minutes later Peter stepped out of his room, dressed, packed and ready to go, but there was still no sign of Olivia.

A slight frown settling on his face, he headed to her door and knocked, awaiting a response. When none came he set down his bag and knocked louder, "Olivia? Are you in there?"

The room was silent, and Peter found it incredibly hard to believe that Olivia would still be asleep. Concern started to overshadow his thoughts, but he tried to downplay it. He tended to over react when it came to Olivia.

Grabbing his bag, he headed for the lobby, hoping to see if anyone down there knew where she might be.

"Excuse me," he said to the English-speaking woman at the front, "have you seen a blonde woman leave here recently?"

The womans brows furrowed in confusion, "I saw a blonde woman leave last night, but none other than that."

Peter was taken aback. Last night? Olivia had no reason to leave the hotel last night, especially alone. "Did she return?" he asked.

"Not that I'm aware, no." the woman shrugged apologetically, "but if it helps, she didn't take any bags with her, so I'm assuming her things are still in her room. I can't give you access without a legitimate reason though."

"No, that's fine," he replied, shaking his head, "I'll be back."

Tossing his bag next to the counter, Peter walked out of the hotel, he didn't have any concerns about someone taking it. His only concern was why Olivia hadn't returned from wherever she went. It was unlike her to go somewhere for an entire night without telling him.

He stopped abruptly when he noticed the missing car in the parking lot. He wasn't surprised that she had taken the car, but that made his life a hell of a lot harder than it had to be. She wasn't very considerate of others when she had her mind set on something.

Peter was heading back to the hotel to call Broyles when he saw an ambulance rush by the hotel, sirens blaring. It was headed towards the police station.

It was then that Peter made the connection. Saunders, she'd want to see him.

Turning around, Peter jogged the short distance to the station, his mind playing out every possible scenario. In every one, he hoped that the ambulance wasn't for Olivia.

As he approached he saw at least twenty townspeople crowded around, curious about the situation, there were a few officers, trying to hold the crowd back. The car he and Olivia had been using was parked at the side of the road.

"Por favor," Peter panted, grabbing the nearest officer by the arm, "soy Peter Bishop, soy de los Estados Unidos, hablas ingles?"

Recognizing Peter, the officer replied, "Yes, you want to know what happened?"

"Yes, please."

Walking out of Peters grasp, the officer headed towards where some paramedics with a stretcher were. Peter followed, and only then did he see the body on the ground, a sheet covering it.

Terror immediately struck Peter as he saw the body. He tried to push past the officer to get to the body. It couldn't be Olivia, he couldn't deal with that, he would kill Saunders if he had to...

"Sir," the officer said gruffly, stopping Peter from going further. Looking into the man's eyes, Peter could see the grief the man was trying to hide. "that is my partner."

Understanding hit Peter as he tried to hide his relief. Nodding solemnly Peter looked from the body to the officer, "I'm sorry."

The officer just shook his head, "That is not all. The man we were detaining for you is gone and there is a second blood stain on the concrete over there." he pointed to a spot near the bench where sure enough, a small pool of blood had dried.

As an afterthought, the officer turned to Peter again, "If you don't mind me asking, where is your partner?"

Peter was now confused, after realizing the body wasn't Olivia's, he had assumed she was somewhere around the scene trying to find out where Saunders had gone, forgetting that she had been gone the entire night, "she isn't here?" he asked the officer, nervousness settling in again.

"No, I thought she was with you." the man said, looking at Peter questioningly.

"Well that's the car we have been using," Peter said quickly, pointing at the abandoned car on the side of the road, "so she _was_ here, and she wouldn't have gone far without the car."

"Sir, no one was here when we arrived at the scene. Is it possible that the blood is your partners?"

Peter considered it. It was very possible, Olivia had probably wanted to talk to Saunders more. Saunders couldn't have possibly overcome both Olivia _and_ the now dead officer though. He must have been helped...

"Sir?" the officer asked again, having been ignored.

Peter hesitated, "I... I think my partner has been kidnapped."

* * *

><p>"Astrix!" Walter exclaimed, chewing on a red vine, "I seem to have lost my-"<p>

"They're right here Walter," Astrid interrupted as she pointed towards a pair of scissors on the counter, "what do you need them for?"

"To cut something." he replied bluntly, taking the scissors and shuffling off.

Astrid rolled her eyes as she continued to type at the computer. Finding out where Brianna Orlbreck had reappeared was taking longer than expected, but she was close.

Hitting enter, she turned in her chair to allow the computer to process the information. She was about to go and investigate what Walter was up to when Broyles walked briskly through the door. His expression clearly told her something was wrong.

"Agent Farnsworth," he said, "Agent Dunham has been kidnapped, most likely by the same people as before."

Astrid's eyes widened as she stood from her chair, she wasn't expecting that. Even Walter emerged from behind a counter, a look of concern on his face.

"Peter called to inform me," Broyles continued, nodding at Walter, "she had visited the police station alone to see Agent Saunders at night, and now the two are missing. Saunders presumably was assisted." he paused to allow Astrid to process the information, "The top priority is now getting Agent Dunham back safely."

Astrid nodded understandably. As an afterthought she turned to the computer screen, and sure enough, Brianna's location had been found.

She was in England. London, more specifically.

Astrid sighed, this day wasn't getting much better.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean there's nothing more for me to do? There's still an entire investigation going on here!" Peter said into his phone, clearly frustrated.<p>

"The police will do their job just fine on their own, Bishop," Broyles cooly replied, "We need you back here, your father's been hard to manage."

"Give me an example of when he _hasn't_ been hard to manage."

"Look Peter," Broyles said, ignoring his quip, "I know you're frustrated, but Saunders is probably long gone from where you are anyway, you can help the most by coming here. Arrangements have already been made for your return, a taxi is on its way to pick you up."

Defeated, Peter ran his fingers through his hair as he paced Olivia's hotel room, "Fine."

Putting the phone in his pocket, Peter began to pack Olivia's things into her bag. It was fairly easy, she didn't bring much. Olivia was always the minimalist.

Slinging her bag over his shoulder, he went to his room to grab his stuff, which was even less, considering that he had been kidnapped. Every part of his body was sore and was begging for a good nights rest in his own bed, but he knew he wouldn't get any sleep with Olivia missing.

What made him worry even more was the knowledge that they wanted Olivia because of the Cortexiphan in her system. There was no telling what they would want with her, he could only hope that it wasn't the same thing they wanted – and got – from Brianna.

* * *

><p>They spoke English here, that much was obvious to Brianna as she wandered the streets of a bustling city. She was just looking for a police officer that could help her, there had to be one around here somewhere.<p>

Her head throbbed more than it ever had before, the pain was dizzying. She was exhausted, and everyone she passed gave her more notice than she cared for. She knew she was filthy, but she didn't care, she just wanted to go home.

She hadn't seen anybody she could ask for help from for a while now, and she was now stumbling down the sidewalk. People had now stopped to stare at her. Someone said something to her, but she couldn't make out what it was. Her feet giving out from under her and her eyes closing shut, she was just grateful for some rest.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So how was it? Do you like the direction it's going? Please tell me in a review, it helps a lot. I know there's a lot of jumping around from perspective to perspective, is it too much? I hope to work on this story more, we'll see how it goes. :) Thanks so much for sticking with me, and I'm sorry to those who are understandably frustrated with me! Again, reviews are what keep me writing. :)**


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